Back to the Start (again)
by withgirl
Summary: After trying to stop the trigger, Regina finds herself back in the Pilot, but with her knowledge of the future, how will she do things differently? [Emma X Regina pairing] [Essentially SwanQueen rewrite of season one]
1. Chapter 1

**A/N I know that Back to the Start is super old at this point but I just couldn't get the idea of rewriting it out of my head so here is the first chapter.**

 **This is a complete rewrite (as in I rewrote every single word) so it isn't a very quick process, but I have done the first 14 chapters so far and I have a plan to finish at least the first arc (which I think ended in chapter 17/18 in the original story).**

Chapter one

Regina felt magic flow through her veins and she closed her eyes against the pain.

She allowed herself a few seconds to try and take in just how it felt to have such an intense power rushing through her and then she finally opened her eyes and looked over to the blonde Charming staring at her, "let me die was Regina."

Emma shook her head adamantly, "Regina, no, there has to be another way."

Regina frowned at her, but quickly put it aside and continued regardless, "I will be able to control the magic, but it will take all of my strength."

The blonde felt her stomach drop at the look on her face. It was apparent that Regina had made up her mind about this. She was going to give up her life for this town so that she could save her son.

"Mom!" Henry shouted followed by his grandparents, which interrupted Emma's further attempt to protest the mayor's plan.

Regina watched the worried expression on his face and she rolled her eyes at the two idiots.

"Henry, you shouldn't be here," she said through gritted teeth, though she was unable to deny to herself that she had wanted to see him in her final moments.

Henry inspected the pained look on his mother's face and he instantly regretted all that he had ever said and done to her. She may have lied to him for years but that didn't mean that he wanted her to sacrifice herself for a town of people that she didn't even like. A small part of him had always thought that she would get redemption.

"You can't give up," he argued, as he ran up to her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

Regina swallowed hard and tried to blink back her tears. Why did Henry have to wait till now to be affectionate?

"I'm sorry Henry, but it will destroy everything. I can't let that happen…this is all that I am strong enough for," she said with her voice sounding slightly hoarse.

Emma watched the scene with her heart in her throat. As much as she should have hated Regina the thought of a life without her made her physically nauseous. She couldn't explain, but she had always assumed that the infuriating brunette would be a part of her future in Storybrooke with her son and her parents. She could see it in Henry's eyes that he needed Regina just as much as she did and she would be dammed if the boy had to grow up without his other mother.

"You may not be strong enough, but maybe we are," Emma said firmly as she walked over to the glowing diamond.

Regina frowned at the determined look on the blonde's face and she couldn't find the right words to object to whatever she was about to object to.

Henry tightened the hug for a couple of seconds before he untangled himself and ran over to his grandparent's arms.

Emma looked into Regina's eyes as she took a step closer to the Mayor. The blonde tried to communicate everything that she had been afraid to voice for a while now and somehow Regina knew exactly what the look meant. It revealed everything that Emma felt for her. In that moment, the brunette felt intense relief. If she had to die, then she was so happy that it could happen knowing that people cared about her.

The burden suddenly lessened and Regina closed her eyes for a moment, when she opened them the magic was flowing between both herself and the Saviour's bodies.

She was about to give the blonde a smile to show her just how much of relief this all was, but before she could, a magical surge threw them both backwards.

Regina's head smashed against a jagged rock before her prone body hit the ground.

In the last moments, before unconsciousness took her away, Regina desperately tried to look for her family to see if they were okay.

* * *

Regina felt her brow scrunch as consciousness returned to her mind. She was aware that her eyes were glued shit and she didn't really feel like opening them right now.

She didn't want to open her eyes to find Emma and Henry (and the idiots she supposed) injured or worse. But then something occurred to her, her back wasn't being supported by cold, hard rock, but rather there was a distinctly soft material underneath her.

Footsteps sounded before she could think further about the possibilities and a masculine voice called, "Regina, wake up."

She expected to open her eyes to find herself either in the hospital or the Charming's apartment and for David to be the one to be prompting her awake.

She finally pried her lids apart and her scathing remark died on her tongue, "Graham?" she breathed.

The Sheriff of Storybrooke didn't seem to have noticed anything off about the mayor, other than the fact that she had fallen asleep on the sofa, so he continued without even a questioning look.

"Archie called, he said that he told a woman where Henry lives. She should be here with him any second now," Graham explained as he held out his hand to help the brunette woman up to her feet.

Regina took a brief look around her living room before she accepted his hand, it all seemed very much real despite the fact that she was almost certain that this had to be a dream or a hallucination.

A few seconds later, the two of them walked through the open door, where she saw a familiar bug pull up to her driveway.

The brunette blinked a few times at the sight as her mind tried to catch up to what was happening, or more specifically, when it was happening.

"Henry?" she said as the boy jumped out of the car, looking much shorter than he had a few moments ago, "how…?"

Henry interrupted her as she ran quickly inside, clutching his story book tightly in both arms, "I found my real mom!" he shouted as he passed her.

Regina felt her heart clench, just as it did when she had heard those words the first time around, though the feeling of him hugging her as he pleaded for her to not sacrifice herself lessened the ache in her chest somewhat. No matter what, she knew that the boy did care about her more than he would be willing to admit right now and she was determined to earn that love this time.

She looked over her shoulder at the boy running up the stairs and she had the urge to run after him and begin apologising profusely for allowing him to believe that he was crazy for so long.

However, Graham's hand on her shoulder made her realise what happened next and she turned to look at the very nervous looking Emma walking slowly up to her.

Regina stared for a moment and considered just how different this woman was to the one who had just taken in immense magic to save Storybrooke from the trigger built into the Dark Curse. The brunette had no doubt that the woman didn't believe anything that Henry had told her about his theories.

She wanted Emma to stay in Storybrooke, but she had no idea how she was supposed to do that considering she had gotten her to stay last time by trying to make her leave. It appeared as though she had been given a second chance but she didn't want to just do the same things over again.

"Emma," she breathed before she realised her folly and just about stopped herself from closing her eyes in frustration at herself.

The blonde stood in front of her and tilted her head in confusion/concern, though she still managed to look Regina up and down for a split second, with a slight blush forming on her cheeks.

"How do you know my name?" she asked with narrowed eyes.

"If Henry can find you, do you not think that I would know your name, Miss Swan?" Regina replied, trying to keep her usual bite in her voice despite how surreal everything currently was.

Emma felt her 'superpower' ping and frowned. However, she quickly decided that it didn't matter, she just wanted to get out of this town and it wasn't as though her power was a perfect lie detector.

"Okay…" she said before nodding and turning on her heels so that she could return to her car.

Regina panicked at the movement and ran over to grab her arm at the elbow.

"Wait," she said and Emma turned around with a frown that morphed into an expectant look.

Regina stood still for a moment as she tried to remember what had happened last time, but she could also only think about how much she needed to talk to a certain pawn store owner.

"There's a storm coming, you should stay the night until it passes…there's a bed and breakfast on Main Street. You just need to speak to the waitress in Granny's diner and she should be able to organise everything for you."

Emma narrowed her eyes at the brunette. She had an overwhelming feeling that this was all wrong, but she also didn't really want to leave, at least not yet.

The blonde nodded slowly, but said suspiciously, "you seem oddly okay with meeting your son's…birth mother."

"I simply no longer want my son to see me as a tyrant and I believe that it would be beneficial for both of you to get to know each other…assuming you would want to of course. For now, could you accept that I simply do not wish for a stranger to risk their life in a storm?"

"And what makes you think that I would be so willing to get to know him?" Emma asked bitterly, with her throat constricting at the very thought.

"There is nothing keeping you here, leave in the morning, if you feel that you need to," Regina replied, hoping that she hadn't just screwed up the future.

The blonde thought about this for a moment and nodded, "okay."

"Before you go, Miss Swan, you must allow me to thank you for returning my son in one piece. Allow me to treat you to breakfast in the morning?"

Emma had the urge to say no since she had planned to depart at the crack of dawn, but when she inspected the slight nervousness behind Regina's eyes, she decided that she couldn't leave without at least seeing this woman one more time. Though, she tried to convince herself that this was because she wanted to find out what kind of woman was raising her son.

"I think I'll take you up on that offer…but I do need to ask…you do know a that Henry thinks that everyone in this town is a fairy-tale character, right?"

"I'm well aware," Regina sighed, "I believe that I now have a better way of dealing with it."

Emma nodded, but she frowned at the vagueness of the statement. However, when she turned to head towards the bug, she found her lips turning up in a smile. She was actually quite looking forward to her breakfast with Mayor Mills despite herself.

* * *

After the blonde had driven away, Regina thanked Graham and sent him back to the station to finish the rest of his shift.

Following that, she had all but ran up the stairs and knocked tentatively on Henry's open door, "Henry?"

"Go away," the boy mumbled into his pillow.

Regina bit the inside of her cheek as she looked at the small lump on the bed. She couldn't really remember what had happened last time but she did know that it had probably ended with some kind of argument.

When she couldn't think of anything else to say, she offered, "I'm happy you're back…"

Henry took a moment to take this in, before he popped up into a sitting position with a frown, "you're not mad at me?" he asked with slightly narrowed eyes. He had been sure that he would have been grounded for the rest of his life.

"I understand why you needed to…find your birth mother," Regina replied as evenly as possible as she crossed her arms over her chest defensively. Even if she agreed that he made the right decision, it didn't make what he did any less painful.

"Are you sick?" Henry asked with a furrowed brow and Regina just let out a little laugh and shook her head.

"I'm fine, Henry, I'm just…trying things a little differently this time," she said, which only made the younger brunette more confused.

He decided that she was just being weird and would probably go back to normal in the morning, "I need to go to bed, I have therapy before school."

Regina swallowed hard as she inspected the expression on his face. She had genuinely tried to make her son believe that he was crazy to protect her precious curse and the guilt was indescribable.

With a deep breath, she pushed herself from the door frame so that she could walk further into the room and closer to the bed.

Henry narrowed his eyes further, "what is going on with you?"

Regina sighed, resisting the urge to plop down onto the bed, "you have no idea."

"Then tell me," Henry shot back, his voice a mixture of anger and frustration.

"I promise you that I will. I just need to speak with someone first to understand everything myself."

"Whatever," he mumbled in disbelief, "I guess that you sent Emma away?"

"I sent her to the B&B and I imagine that she won't be leaving any time soon," she replied.

Henry furrowed his brow when he saw the slight smirk tugging at the corner of her lips, though it didn't really look all that malicious.

"Seriously, are you sick?" he asked, feeling genuinely considered for the woman. Radical changes in personality were certainly a cause for concern.

Regina let out another laugh and shook her head again, "I'm fine, I promise, and I will tell you everything in the morning, okay?"

"I'll believe it in the morning," he said as he flopped down to the bed. As soon as his back hit the mattress, his book fell down from under his blanket.

He scrambled to pick it up, but Regina beat him to it as she picked it up before he made it off his bed.

Henry looked up from her in fear, but she simply handed the book to him.

"You need to be more careful with this, Henry," she scolded, "and don't rip out any pages."

With that, the mayor turned on her heels and left behind a very dumbfounded Henry.

S

A bell sounded out through the pawn store and Mr Gold looked up from his ledger with a slight smirk.

"Hello Madam Mayor, to what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?"

Regina rolled her eyes as she walked over to the counter, "cut the crap, imp, I'm here to make a deal."

The man frowned at the intensity shining through her eyes. This was not the Mayor of Storybrooke, it was obvious that something important had happened to this woman but nothing in his carefully constructed plan could have caused this.

However, he decided to play it safe in the unlikely event that he was wrong, "I'm afraid I don't believe I understand."

Regina rolled her eyes again, she hadn't thought that he would have told her everything straightaway, but she had sincerely hoped that she wouldn't have to deal with his usual time wasting and riddles.

"I know who you are, Rumpelstiltskin."

Rumple narrowed his eyes at the woman. On one hand, if she was bluffing to find out the truth then agreeing with her would just reveal the secret that he didn't want her to know just yet, however, if she did somehow know the truth, there would be no point in continuing the lie.

"And what you make you believe something so ridiculous," he asked, hoping to ascertain what her intentions were.

"It's a very long story, the basis of which is that I have already lived through the curse breaking at the hands of the Saviour, Emma Swan," Regina replied.

Mr Gold frowned for a moment. There was no doubt in his mind that she was telling the truth, there was no way that she could know about the existence of a Saviour otherwise, at least not this early in his plans.

"Okay, your majesty," he relented. "what is it this thrillingly long story?"

Regina told him all about the alternate timeline and she continued to receive a look of disbelief right until she got up to the part about the trigger.

"I've always wondered why you would want that thing written into the curse," he laughed with a shake of his head.

"It was a failsafe," the mayor defended.

"For what?" Rumple shot back.

Regina just shook her head. He had a point, that diamond turned out to be nothing but trouble, but she wasn't going to admit that aloud to the imp.

"The point of this is that Emma and I are now living in the past and only I appear to have my memories…I need to know why."

"I suppose the combined power of the Evil Queen and the Saviour partially stopped the trigger. You stopped it from completely destroying Storybrooke but you were still sent back to a time when the curse first started breaking," he pondered, "but surely you can just use your knowledge of the future to get exactly what you want?"

"What I want has changed, I need to know the fastest way to break the curse," she replied.

"Two methods come to mind, you could either kill yourself or the Saviour," he answered with a smirk.

"Neither is an option," she replied with a deep scowl.

"If you say so," Rumple sighed in mock frustration, "the curse is destined to break, if you don't wish to move things along, you just need to play this timeline out. The curse will break eventually now that the Saviour is in town. Now what do I get out of this deal?"

Regina sighed, she didn't feel as though there was any other method other than waiting to see what had happened.

"Years ago, I lied to you and I need to…rectify that…" the brunette replied with her head bowed.

Rumple narrowed his eyes and nodded for her to continue.

"Before I tell you, I need your word that you will not take revenge against me in anyway."

The man considered this for a moment. He couldn't deny that he wanted to know what was going on; plus, he was sure that he would find a work around for his oath if needed.

"Belle is alive," she replied, after a brief hesitation.

Rumple stood still for a moment before his face contorted and he took a step forward before he remembered his oath and stopped herself.

"Where is she?!" he growled slightly relieved that he didn't have any magic in that moment since he was sure that he would have already broken the deal.

Regina brought out the skeleton key from her pocket and placed it onto the counter.

"Her cursed name is Lacey and she is underneath the hospital," she said, regret dripping through her words.

Mr Gold took a few deep breaths, though it didn't seem to have any kind of real calming effect, before he asked, "you locked her up for 28 years?"

"You trained me to become the type of person who would do something like that, so I believe that we're even," the mayor sneered.

He narrowed his eyes, "I suppose that you're right, but this does not mean we're even," he replied with venom seeping through all of his words as he pushed through the counter barrier and grabbed the key.

* * *

Regina slowly stirred her coffee and stared blankly across the kitchen. She had been stood there since 5.30 am and it was now closer to 7.30 am. During this stretch of time, she had been considering what would be a good way to explain everything that had happened. Then it occurred to her. Henry was the boy who figured out that the curse existed and brought the Saviour here to break it. If anyone was going to believe her about this, then she was sure it was Henry. Believing wasn't the issue here, it was the trusting part.

After a few more moments staring at the wall, she decided that chocolate-chip pancakes were in order.

The mayor had just placed the last pancake onto a plate just as Henry walked into the kitchen already fully dressed for school. Regina smiled and placed the plate onto the counter and the boy eyed them distrustfully, "they're chocolate-chip, Henry."

The boy seemed to completely forget that he had ever distrusted his mother as he launched forward and began devouring them.

When had finally swallowed the last bite, he seemed to remember what his mother had promised the previous night and looked up at her expectantly.

Regina took a deep breath, briefly wondering whether she could put this off for a little longer. She was so afraid that she would somehow do this wrong and screw up any chance that she would have had to amend their broken relationship.

She took another deep breath and finally admitted, "I'm sorry."

Henry furrowed his brow as he considered whether he had ever heard his mother sound so sincere, "for what?" he asked.

"For…lying to you about the curse, it's very real," Regina admitted, finding that the words were a lot harder to say than she would have thought.

The younger brunette opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He had hoped for this moment but he had never actually imagined that it would happen. Which was exactly why he finally said with narrowed eyes. "what's your plan here?"

"This may be the part that is difficult for you to understand…I have already lived through the curse breaking and a year after. Emma and I stopped something that was going to destroy Storybrooke and I woke up yesterday reliving the past," Regina blurted out hoping that it sounded better than it did in her head.

After a couple of seconds of sitting blankly trying to work through what he had just been told, Henry furrowed his brow in concentration, "the curse broke," the boy said slowly.

Regina nodded and a smile spread across his face.

"I knew it!" he almost shouted in triumph. Regina just continued nodding and tried to keep the pained look off her face. Something occurred to Henry and his furrowed his brow again, "you and Emma worked together?"

"It was the only way to stop the town's destruction," Regina replied, "and now I need to change everything to make sure that things don't get that close to destruction again."

"And how are you going to do that?" Henry asked with a frown as his mind went make into processing mode.

"Absolutely no idea," Regina sighed.

"I know that this all very hard to believe…"

"It's awesome!" he finally announced as he stood from the stool, doing everything but fist pump.

Regina's eyes widened at his sudden change in mood and she choked out, "you believe me?"

"Well…it makes perfect sense, you saw what you did was wrong and now you have a chance to fix everything and get redemption," he replied with a huge smile.

The older brunette just looked at him blankly for a few moments, before Henry furrowed his brow in concern, "mom, are you okay?"

"Belief is a strange feeling," she admitted, "I considered that I might have needed some kind of proof…"

"You have proof?" Henry asked with his brow knit tightly together as he tried to figure out what she could have possibly had.

"Well…there is a dragon hidden under the library…." Henry's smile spread across his face in excitement but it quickly dropped when Regina added, "but you don't have to see it now…"

"But…" he began, but quickly decided that there were more important things to focus on…for now. He was more determined to make sure that his mother got the redemption that his mother got the redemption that he had always wanted her to have so that he could have the curse break and still keep his mother who he never be able to not love.

"So, you really have no plan?" he asked.

"I wish I did," Regina sighed, "the curse took a year to break…last time…"

Henry sighed as well, he certainly didn't want to wait that long now that he knew he was definitely right.

"Well…how did Emma break the curse last time?"

Regina opened her mouth to tell him, but she quickly closed it when her role in what had happened occurred to her.

Henry tilted his head at her expression and he quickly added, "I promise that I won't judge you."

"…really?" she asked in surprise, remembering all of the judgement that she had received in the other timeline.

"You technically haven't done any of it yet and you want to make sure you don't make the same mistake again, so I can't really judge you," he explained.

Regina nodded and took a moment to take this in, before she explained, "I tried to put a sleeping curse on Emma using an apple turnover…but you at it instead. Whale couldn't wake you with medicine…Emma kissed you on the forehead and it broke the Dark Curse and the Sleeping Curse."

Henry nodded and thought about this for a moment, "that…can't be the best way to break the curse…"

"I couldn't agree more," Regina said with a little chuckle when she noticed that there was no sign of disgust in her son's eyes.

A look of concentration overcame Henry's face as he considered all of the options that they had, but he quickly decided that he would need more time to think all of this over.

"We need an operation," he finally said.

"Operation Cobra?" Regina suggested with a smirk.

Henry blinked a couple of times in shock, he believed his mother beyond a shadow of a doubt, but that didn't mean that he had fully come to terms with the idea of the woman actually knowing the future.

"I think we need a different name," Henry finally replied, deciding that it wouldn't be right to name it after the operation he had designed to thwart her, "how about operation…Mongoose?"

Regina nodded, "I like it," she smiled, before she added, "but you need to go to school before you can start planning anything."

"You can't just send me to school after everything that you just told me!" he exclaimed.

"I can, "she laughed, "besides, I need to meet Emma for breakfast."

"So…you're going to become friends with Emma?"

"Yes…friends," she smiled before she pushed herself away from the counter so that she could go and finish her preparation for breakfast and work.

 **A/N Please pm or review to let me know whether anyone is still interested in this so I know whether or not to post the other chapters, there's no point posting if no one is interested anymore :/ lol but hope you enjoyed this chapter anyway :D**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two

Emma smiled at Ruby as the woman placed a hot cocoa in front of her.

Since last night, she'd had the urge to run away from this town the moment that she had driven away from the Mayoral Mansion. However, Regina hadn't been lying about the storm since she had seen the first sign of rain when she had turned onto Main Street.

By the time she had woken up the next day, she decided that she couldn't go on a four hour drive without breakfast and that she would be insane to pass up the chance to have a meal with Regina Mills, though she wasn't exactly sure why it was that she felt that way.

Internally, she tried to rationalise it as because she couldn't pass up the opportunity to get to know a little more about the woman who had adopted her son, which was only partially the reason. Knowing nothing about her child had bothered her for ten years and she was fairly certain that she wouldn't be able to handle leaving him with a woman he claimed was so evil. If she spent some time with her, she could be sure that everything Henry had told her was part of the little 'story' he had made up.

However, she was determined to leave straight after. Everything about this town was just too weirdly familiar, whenever she entered somewhere she had never seen before, she got the distinct feeling that she had in fact been there before. When she saw a complete stranger she felt as though she knew their faces but she just couldn't remember their names (or a single scrap of information about them).

The sooner she got away from all of this, the better that it would be for her.

In her concentration, she hadn't noticed the bell over the door ringing out or the clicking of heels as the Mayor of Storybrooke walking over to her table until the woman was right in front of her.

"Good morning, Miss Swan," Regina said from the other side of the table. It didn't escape her notice that the Saviour had chosen to sit at the same table that she had during her original first trip to Granny's diner.

Emma looked up from her beverage and smiled at Regina, which turned into a slight smirk when she saw the suspiciously tight pant suit (with one too many buttons undone).

"Good morning, madam mayor," Emma replied, not quite sure why she had chosen those words.

Regina felt a swarm of butterflies erupt in her stomach at the use of the familiar title and she slipped into the chair opposite the blonde.

Ruby sauntered over to the table with her pad in hand and asked, "what can I get you two ladies?"

"I'll have my usual and Miss Swan?" Regina turned to Emma as she resisted the urge to order for her. She had seen this woman eat enough times to know exactly what she was going to ask for.

"I'll have a bearclaw, please."

Regina smirked as Ruby nodded and walked away and Emma frowned at the woman opposite her.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing," Regina replied, quickly realising that her knowing smirk must have been freaking the woman out.

"Okay…" Emma said in disbelief before falling into silence.

It only took a couple of seconds for this silence to become painfully oppressive and she bit the inside of her cheek. The thought of spending the rest of the meal like this made her want to run away right now and forget about the delicious pastry.

However, Emma quickly decided that if she was leaving straight after this, she might as well ask exactly what she wanted to know before she left this town as quickly as her bug could take her.

"Can I ask you something?"

Regina just nodded, relieved that she didn't have to be the one to break the silence.

"What is the deal with this town?"

The brunette frowned at the question but she still felt a certain about of relief. Maybe Emma wasn't completely starting from scratch likely she had originally thought? Could the Saviour remember without the need to first break the curse?

"Whatever do you mean?" Regina asked, trying to gauge exactly what was going on in the woman's brain.

"This is going to seem ridiculous…but everyone in town seems really familiar."

"The mind is a curious thing, I'm not sure that I know much about déjà vu, Miss Swan," Regina said as casually as she possibly could, despite the fact that she felt very much excited.

"There's just something about you," Emma replied, before she realised that she had said that aloud and her cheeks burnt red, "sorry," she mumbled.

Regina was about to say something, but she was cut short when Ruby came over and placed a plate in front of each of them and gave the mayor her usual cup of coffee.

"Thank you, Miss Lucas."

Emma smiled to add her thanks as Ruby walked away and she pulled the bear claw closer to her chest,

"So, what is it about me?" Regina teased, deciding that she was going to milk this embarrassed Emma for all she was worth. She was cue when she was blushing this much, after all.

"It's hard to explain," Emma said as her blush deepened further.

The brunette considered just dropping the subject, but she found that she just couldn't resist, "well, could you try and explain?"

Emma shook her head, "not until you tell me what you're hiding."

Regina frowned, trying to look as believable as possible, "I'm not hiding anything…"

"Well, no offence, but you seem almost as crazy as the kid," Emma laughed between bites of her pastry.

The brunette blinked a few times and stopped herself from clenching her fist. It had been a long time since she had interacted with pre-curse breaking Emma. The Emma who had helped to stop the trigger kind of just went along with things, even if she didn't believe them straight away. This Emma, on the other hand, appeared to not believe a single thing outside of the ordinary.

"He is not crazy," she shot back, just about managing to keep the pure venom out of her tone.

"He thinks that you're the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves," Emma laughed somewhat nervously.

"He has a very active imagination," Regina replied slowly, hoping that she sounded convincing. She knew that this was not the right time to start telling Emma the truth, she would definitely high-tail it away from this town if she did. She also shot a quick look around pre-curse Granny's and she decided that this wouldn't be the best forum for telling the truth anyway. However, she did notice a certain schoolteacher sat at the counter and she realised she had already changed things enough so that she wouldn't meet the woman in the way that she was supposed to.

"Why do I get the feeling that you believe him?" Emma asked with a tilt of her head.

Regina bit the inside of her cheek. She had told so many lies since they had met that she was sure that the Saviour had been ignoring her Superpower, but she didn't really like the idea of running the risk of losing her trust so quickly. However, she didn't really have much of a choice at this point.

"Of course, I don't believe in his theories, I simply don't think that branding him as crazy would be helpful to anyone," she said, "I do think it would be helpful if you were to stay so that he can get to know you for a little while. It might help him become better adjusted."

"Why would he possibly think that you're evil?" Emma asked with a frown.

"I recently…realised that the more I pushed him to believe I am his one and only parent, the more that he would pull away from me. I understand that you have had a lot happen to you in the past twenty-four hours, but I would very much appreciate it if you would be willing to test my theory for a while?"

Emma nodded as she considered this. She was sure that her answer should be a vehement 'no' but she just couldn't bring herself to say that. Since Henry had shown up at her door, a voice had been screaming 'run' but at the same time she had felt as though her wish had been granted. Now that she had met Regina, a family seemed to have been neatly laid out in front of her and that was no something that she could outright reject.

"Okay, I'll stay for a least a month," she said, though she wasn't quite sure why she had agreed to stay for so long.

Regina's smile broadened at the news and she suddenly realised that she would be able to kill two birds with one stone.

"Well if you're going to be staying, you'll need somewhere to stay other than the B&B."

Emma shrugged, "it's not the worst place I've ever stayed."

The brunette instantly felt a pit of guilt form in her stomach when it occurred to her that everything that had ever happened to Emma was completely her fault. It was her fault that she had never had a stable home. The woman had grown up in a palace surrounded by loving family and subjects if she had never interfered with her life. In that moment, she decided that she would have go through with what she was planning, even if she didn't exactly enjoy the thought of helping Snow.

"I believe that Henry's teacher is looking for a roommate, I think you'll make good…friends," she explained.

Emma narrowed her eyes at Regina as she tried to ascertain what the tone meant. She hoped she wasn't talking about romance because the very thought made her stomach twist in disgust, even if the only thing that she knew about this woman was her profession.

"She's the nicest person in town," Regina bargained when Emma didn't reply.

"I'm not big on roommates," Emma replied, frowning deeply at just how important this seemed to be to the other woman.

"Trust me, Miss Swan. In such a small town, you would do well to make as many friends as possible. It's completely up to you, but she's the one at the counter with the pixie hair cut when you make your decision," Regina smiled, hoping that she was being more convincing than weird.

The blonde frowned when she peered over to the woman's back and she suddenly got this strange feeling in her stomach, as if she were about to go and introduce herself to someone very important.

"Why can't you go and talk to her for me?" Emma asked, with a slightly desperate twinge to her tone.

"We're not the best of friends, but trust me?" Regina asked as she rose to her feet. Though she wanted to stay with Emma a little longer, she had work to do (again).

The blonde opened her mouth to protest, but nothing came out, she really did trust this woman and she wanted to do anything to make her happy.

"Okay," she nodded.

Regina placed a few bills onto the table for Ruby and was about to walk away before she remembered something and stopped. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a slip of paper and placed it in front of the Saviour, "call me," she smirked.

As she walked away, Emma smiled down at the piece of paper that the woman had clearly written out in preparation for their meal.

Once the bell rung out to signify that the mayor had officially left, Emma bit the inside of her cheek and eyed the cocoa in front of her. She was about to stand up, but a strange feeling struck her and she pushed the mug away from herself before she stood up and slowly walked over to the counter.

However, before she made it over to the schoolteacher, she considered what she was about to do and why she was actually doing it.

By all accounts, walking up to a complete stranger and asking to live with them was complete and utter insanity. However, there was a distinct feeling nagging at the back of her mind that this was her only option. She took a deep breath and took the last few steps and slipped into the seat next to the woman.

Emma was about to open her mouth to introduce herself but she closed it and frowned when she realised that Regina had not actually mentioned the woman's name.

The brunette seemed to notice that there was someone sat next to her and she turned to look at her with a frown. Her frown quickly morphed into a smile as she inspected the new arrival.

Emma felt extreme familiarity at the sight of the schoolteacher. However, the déjà vu was stronger than with anyone else she had met so far, perhaps with the exception of how she had felt when she had seen Regina. The blonde was about to say something to explain why she had come over randomly, but she was cut short by the smiling woman.

"Hey, I don't think we've met before, I'm Mary Margaret," she said.

The Saviour tilted her head, briefly worried about Henry growing up in such a trusting town, but when she thought about it, this woman hardly looked like she would hurt anyone.

"Emma Swan," she replied, and added in a mumble, "I'm Henry's…birth mother…"

Mary Margaret frowned at the news but she had to admit that it wasn't all that shocking. She knew how Henry had felt when he had found out that he was adopted, but she would have never have imagined that a ten-year-old would have actually been able to find his birth mother.

"I'm surprised that Regina allowed you to live," Mary Margaret laughed.

Emma frowned curiously. The first thing that she wanted to know why it was so easy to talk to this apparent stranger, but she also wanted to know why everyone seemed to think that Regina was so bad when she had been nothing but nice to her.

"She asked me to stay…"

"Really?" Mary Margaret's eyes widened, "that doesn't seem like her…"

The blonde was about to ask what she meant, but she suddenly felt very awkward talking about Regina behind her back.

"Me and Regina were just talking and she said that you might be looking for a roommate…I just came over to check if…that's true…"

"You don't sound so sure about staying," the brunette frowned, though she was sure there was something odd about this newcomer, but she was also sure that it was nothing to worry about.

"I am looking for a roommate," she confirmed, "when can you move in?"

"Seriously? You don't want a background check or reference or something?" Emma asked with a raised eyebrow.

Mary Margaret laughed and shook her head, "I really need to get to school, but call me after 3.30 and we can arrange everything," she explained as she scrawled her details onto a napkin.

Emma nodded as she took the offered number with a furrowed brow and asked, "why would you trust me so quickly?"

Mary Margaret gathered her things and stood from the stool before explaining. "this may seem strange, but there's something about you."

With that, she began walking away and once she was out of ear-shot, Emma sighed and muttered, "I know exactly what you mean."

* * *

"Hey mom," Henry called as he allowed himself into the Mayoral Office. He had been slightly relieved when he had seen that her receptionist was also on her lunch break since he liked the idea of surprising his mother after everything he had said and done to her in the last year.

Regina looked away from her laptop as she pulled her glasses off her face and pushed the lid down.

"Since when are you allowed to leave school during lunch?" she asked with a raised eyebrow, though she didn't really sound angry at all. It wasn't as though Storybrooke was the most dangerous of places, at least at the moment.

"I may have forged a note from you and convinced Miss Blanchard to give me a ride after I told her that you were running late…you need to give me a ride back to school after though…"

Regina just shook her head and motioned for Henry to come and sit down in front of her desk.

"That sounds like a lot of trouble to come to my office for lunch, Henry, you would have seen me after school," she said,

"We have a lot to talk about, I couldn't wait another three hours," Henry defended and the mayor just nodded to show him that she wasn't too bothered by any of this,

He smiled and reached down into his bag to pull out two zip lock bags.

"I made you a sandwich before we left this morning…"

Regina frowned as she considered when he would have had time to do that she realised that it must have been while she had gone upstairs to grab her things for work and change outfit for the third time. She would probably have never have admitted it to anyone, but she wanted to look perfect for her breakfast with the future Saviour of Storybrooke.

"So, what did you so desperately need to talk about?" she asked with a smile as she accepted the sandwich.

"We need to talk about Operation Mongoose," the boy replied as though this were the most obvious thing in the world.

"In what capacity?" Regina replied.

"We need some way to plan out a better way to break the curse…what happens in the future?" he asked as he pulled out a pen and a notebook and looked at her expectantly.

The former Evil Queen wasn't even fazed by the fact that he had come so prepared and instead cast her mind back to what had happened in her timeline.

"I'm not sure that I know where to begin…" she frowned.

"Well…you should probably go from what should have happened after the point you were sent back to," Henry reasoned.

"I gave Emma some cider so that she would crash into the sign and get arrested, when she got out, I tricked her into talking your therapy notes so Graham arrested her again. Mary Margaret bailed her out and she took a chainsaw to one of the branches on my apple tree. Then we threatened each other," she recounted practically in one breath, "that was the first couple of days."

"Okay…" Henry frowned when he finished furiously scribbling into his notebook, "so don't do any of that."

"I believe that it has all already been avoided," she replied before she knit her brows together as something important occurred to her, "you know who Emma's parents are, right?"

"I know that Miss Blanchard is Snow White…I have a few options for Prince Charming but I'm not sure yet…why?"

"I ensured that Emma would meet Snow in the diner this morning, but I believe that meeting her father would be the next logical step…"

Henry nodded his agreement, "so…how do we do that?"

"You're going to the hospital with your class later, right?" at Henry's nod, Regina continued, "there is a coma patient there known as John Doe. His cursed name is David Nolan and he is Prince Charming."

The younger brunette tilted his head as he inspected her expression. He could tell that she was struggling with the idea of helping the couple she had so long trying to destroy. He was sure that he should be mad at her for that fact, but actions spoke louder than words. He could tell from the way that she had been acting since yesterday that she really did intend to do as she said she would,

"How do we wake him up from the coma?"

"Last time you had Mary Margaret read him part of your story book," Regina replied, "I believe you should do the same again during your trip today."

The mayor looked up to see a huge smile on Henry's face and she asked, "what?" with a small laugh.

"I've always wished that you would tell me the truth, I guess it's weird to actually hear you talk about everything as if it's real," he replied.

"Well I promise that I will never lie to you again," she said as she mirrored his expression.

"Okay, so I have an important question," the boy said when he received an assenting, but cautious nod from his mother, he asked, "in…the other timeline, what was going on with you and Emma?"

Regina frowned and stuttered, "w-what?"

"Your face lights up whenever you talk about her and your trying to give her everything that she could want. You obviously like her, mom. So did anything happen between you two in the future?"

"No, nothing ever happened," she replied with regret seeping through all of her words. "but you would be okay with it?"

"I admit that it would be kind of gross, but it makes a lot of sense. Do we need to include it in the operation?"

Regina shook her head at the eagerness in his voice. Although, the thought would have probably hurt before she was aware that one of the reasons that wanted them together was so that he could have two parents. She could admit that she very much liked the thought of that happening herself.

"I'll handle that part, Henry, you focus on breaking the curse," she laughed.

The boy nodded his agreement and asked something that had been nagging at him, "so, what's Storybrooke like after the curse breaks?"

"Other people seemed very happy…but I didn't really get the chance to enjoy it," she sighed.

Henry nodded and realised that he was probably a major reason for her misery.

He placed his hand over hers and said, "well you will this time."

"I hope so," she smiled weakly.

 **A/N I hope that you enjoyed this chapter, please review to let me know what you thought :)**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three

As his class walked into the hospital, Henry clutched his book tightly to his chest. He hadn't stopped smiling since his lunch with his mom, and he was so relieved that she was no longer lying to him.

Miss Blanchard announced that she wanted them all to stay on this floor, but that they should explore and talk to anyone that they wanted to. Henry immediately set out in search of 'John Doe' and ten minutes later he walked into a private room with a blond comatose man hooked up to a ridiculous number of wires and machines.

Miss Blanchard followed him into the room, "this probably isn't the best room," she said she placed a hand on his shoulder.

Henry looked up to her and asked, "what happened to him?"

"From what I've heard your mom found him on the side of the road and brought him here. He has been in a coma ever since, nobody even knows his name," she replied with a sad smile.

The boy looked down to his book and then back to the woman who had no idea that she was his grandmother, "do you think that he can hear us?"

Mary Margaret shook her head and removed a hand from his shoulder, "nobody really knows, but I would like to think that it helps if someone talks to him."

Henry nodded and held his book out to her, "could you read to him then?"

The brunette woman tilted her head with a frown at just how hopeful he looked. He looked as though this was the most important thing in the world even though she was sure that this should have been the first time that the boy even found out that this man existed.

"Why don't you read to him?" The schoolteacher asked.

"You have a…more calming voice," he tried, hoping that his explanation wasn't too weird. "You could just try please? I have a feeling that it would work…"

Mary Margaret inspected his puppy dog eyes for a moment. She frowned when she thought about the effect that those eyes had on her, she was sure that there was something familiar about them. She just felt the need to give him whatever he wanted.

"Okay," she finally said as she accepted the book from the boy and walked over to the chair beside the man's bed.

Henry came to sit in the other chair and looked at the woman expectantly as she opened the book to the first page.

"Once upon a time…" she began.

* * *

Graham frowned as he walked up to the brunette pacing a couple steps in each direction.

When had received a text from the mayor asking him to meet her in the cemetery, he had been sure that she must have been in some kind of danger. However, he could now see that the only thing she was in danger of was having a panic attack.

"Regina?" He called once he was in ear-shot, "are you okay?"

The mayor looked up from her feet and her eyes widened. When she had sent the text, she had been sure that it would take the man a little longer to get here. She should have had more time to practice her speech for the sheriff.

When she didn't reply, Graham asked, "why did you ask me here?"

"There's a wrong I must right before it gets worse," the brunette replied with a sad smile as images of the potential future ran through her mind. What she had done to the first sheriff of Storybrooke had truly been one of her major regrets.

Said sheriff frowned. He looked like he was about to say something, but he had no idea what to say and so he simply nodded instead.

She motioned for him to follow her over to the mausoleum, but she thought better of it and turned on her heels to look at him.

"Has anything strange been happening to you since Emma got into town?"

Graham's eyes widened and he visibly gulped, "what do you mean?"

"Have you experienced anything out of the ordinary since Emma arrived?" She tried again.

"I…" he began, thinking to lie but he could tell that this was important, "I had a weird dream last night…and I accidentally bumped into her earlier. I think I had like a flashback…but there was no way that it was a memory…"

"I have an explanation for everything, you just need to trust me for the next five minutes," she said rather pleadingly.

Graham narrowed his eyes but still nodded for her to continue, Regina sighed in relief and motioned for him to follow her into the Mausoleum.

Once they were inside, Regina made no attempts to explain anything as she walked forward and pushed her father's coffin aside. Stairs revealed themselves and Regina began walking down them while Graham hesitated for a moment. However, the sheriff quickly remembered his promised and walked slowly down the steps.

His mouth fell open when he finally entered the vault and he looked around the room with fear raising in his stomach. There was not a single piece of equipment in the room that he could identify.

"What is all of this?" He breathed.

"Well…first of all, the dreams and flashes you've been experiencing are indeed memories," she explained.

Graham blinked a couple of times, before he shook his head vigorously, "that's not possible…I've never hunted in my life…"

"Believe me, you most definitely have," Regina replied, and then walked over to the wall of glowing boxes behind her. She picked out the box that contained the heart that she had held many times over the last few decades.

She brought the box over to him, "you see, this isn't the realm in which you were born, everyone in this town, with the exception of Henry, was born in the Enchanted Forest," she explained.

The sheriff began taking steps back as he shook his head, "I should really go, Regina."

The brunette let out a frustrated breath as she considered whether this was worth it. Graham had so obviously been interested in Emma but she couldn't kill him just for that. She wasn't the Evil Queen anymore.

"When I cast the curse, you don't have your heart. So your cursed identity is not as strong as other peoples. That's why Emma's presence causes such vivid memory flashes," to punctuate her final words, she opened the box to reveal a beating heart.

Graham's mouth fell open at the sight somehow he knew that it would make him feel less dull.

"In theory, the heart has survived because it has been protected by the very magic that was used to remove it from you," Regina pondered as she inspected the organ. It wasn't nearly as brightly glowing as it had been in the Enchanted Forest, but she could still feel the power oozing from it.

Graham remained rooted in place she she stepped in front of him and he didn't resist in anyway when she held the organ in front of his chest.

Regina took a deep breath and prayed that this would actually work as she had hoped it would and she then pushed the heart into his chest with zero resistance.

Once she pulled her hand back, she looked at him cautiously for some kind of reaction.

Graham brought his own hand up to his chest and let out a ragged breath when he felt the heartbeat that he hadn't realised had been absent for the last three decades.

"Regina," he breathed with more emotion than he had in decades.

"It worked," she sighed in relief and Graham frowned when he saw just how happy the woman looked. She looked to be the most genuine that he had ever seen her since he had first met the woman all those years ago.

"I remember…everything…" he stuttered with his hand on his chest, still very much overwhelmed at the amount of memories and emotions streaming through his mind. "Why would you give me my heart back?"

"Because…I don't want to be tempted to do something that I would regret…" she answered vaguely since she quickly decided that she would tell him everything when his mind didn't have all of the memories of a whole other life running through it.

"W-what do you want?" He asked with a frown, preparing himself for some kind of defence against the Evil Queen. He couldn't figure out how returning his heart could possibly be of benefit to the woman, but there was also no way that he would instantly believe that she did it out of the goodness of her heart.

"I need to break the curse…" she replied.

Graham frowned. From what he knew about the Regina who he had known in the Enchanted Forest, that was certainly not something that she would want. Had she changed without him noticing?

"I just have two things to ask of you…" Regina continued when the man didn't say anything.

The sheriff was about to protest that he didn't owe her anything, but he quickly decided against it. It occurred to him that he, Henry and Regina were the only people who probably knew the truth about Storybrooke. He could work with her for now so that he didn't have to be completely alone, especially if she was actually telling the truth about wanting the curse to break. He simply nodded, asking her to continue.

"I need you to keep an eye on Mr Gold for a while to make sure that he isn't planning anything and I need you to hire Emma as your deputy," she exclaimed, though she missed out another demand that she had.

It would only confuse him more right now if she demanded that he not develop any feelings for the blonde.

* * *

Regina walked down Main Street, mentally going through all of the things that should be happening soon so that she could figure out what should happen next.

However, she was sure when she made it to the school to pick up Henry that he would have plenty of ideas during his math lesson.

Her thoughts were interrupted, though, when her phone rang out and she frowned deeply at the sound.

"Hello?" She asked once she pressed 'accept'.

"Mayor Mills," a voice sighed in relief on the other side of the line, though she still sounded very much frantic, "this is Nurse Johnson calling from the hospital. The John Doe you brought in has woken up."

The mayor sighed as she tried to remember what happened next, but she was promptly informed by the nurse, "but when Dr Whale left him alone to collect some equipment, he came back and the patient had disappeared. We have already informed the sheriff's department that we have a missing patient, but we had to call you since you're his emergency contact," the woman practically said in one breath. It was rather obvious that she was both stressed and would much rather be not talking to the terrifying mayor.

Regina just took a deep breath as she considered what she should be doing now to move this along, before she replied calmly, "thank you for informing me so promptly."

She hung up a moment later and quickly dialled another number.

The sheriff answered after two rings and Regina said, "I need you to ensure that Mary Margaret is taken to the Toll Bridge."

* * *

-One hour later-

"Remind me why we're here again?" Mary Margaret asked as she and Emma carefully made their way through the forest.

"Well…Graham gave me a job as a deputy," she explain, still 100% sure why she had agreed so quickly. "He got a call about John Doe disappearing and sent me to go and find him. He said that I would need to go with someone who knows what John Doe looks like and who knows where the Toll Bridge is. He said something about testing me something about testing me so he couldn't come with me," she frowned as she considered just how much of what he had said actually made sense.

Mary Margaret stepped over a particularly large root and frowned as she asked, "but…why me?"

"I'm…not sure…" Emma replied, "he just said something like 'have you met Henry's teacher?'" She let out an exasperated sigh as she tried to figure out exactly why it was that she was so willing to go along with all of the crazy in Storybrooke for the past couple of days.

Mary Margaret just nodded as they finally came up to the Toll Bridge, "but how did Graham know he would be here?"

"Anonymous tip…I think," Emma replied whilst she shone her flashlight around and the brunette began to do the same.

"There!" The schoolteacher almost shouted when the light flashed across the unconscious blond man laying halfway down the bank.

Emma completely forgot about all of the questions she had surround this situation and they both ran quickly towards John Doe.

They each fell to their knees on either side of him and Mary Margaret placed a hand on the distressed man's arm.

"It's okay," the brunette when she noticed that their presence had caused him to begin stirring.

He started mumbling incoherently.

It was all utter nonsense, but before Emma pulled her radio off her belt, she could have sworn that she had heard him say 'Snow'.

S

"I sleep over there," Mary Margaret pointed, "your bedroom is up those stairs and then there's the kitchen, living room and bathroom."

Emma closed the door behind her and looked at each thing that the woman pointed at. Originally, the blonde was going to move in a couple days from now so that Mary Margaret could organise her apartment. However, after they had returned John Doe to the hospital, the schoolteacher had insisted that she might as well just move in today. Emma had just agreed and decided that there was no point in bringing up the fact that the brunette probably just didn't want to be alone after the night she'd had.

The blonde took another look around the room before she followed the brunette over to the kitchen. She slid onto one of the stools at the counter and the schoolteacher she about making hot cocoa for the both of them.

Emma inspected the look on her face as she worked and tilted her head, "are you thinking about John Doe?"

The brunette's hands paused and she looked up from the two mugs on the counter and frowned as she considered the question (and just how this virtual stranger seemed to already know her so well).

"There's just…"

"Something familiar about him?" Emma suggested when the other woman trailed off. Mary Margaret nodded and the blonde blew out a breath, "this town is so…weird…" she sighed.

"It's not that strange," Mary Margaret frowned, "everything feels normal…well except for the mayor…"

"What about her?" Emma asked, sitting up slightly at the mention of Regina.

"Well, before you came to town, she was much less hospitable…" she replied after taking a moment to think of the right word, "and Henry has seemed a lot happier in class today."

"Because…of me?" The blonde asked, looking very much shell shocked.

Mary Margaret nodded as she made the finishing touches to their beverages.

"I've never seen Regina smile so many times in a single day," the brunette reasoned and at Emma's smile/blush, she asked, "you like her too?"

Emma opened her mouth to protest, but nothing but a small squeak came out and then schoolteacher looked as if she was about to explode with excitement.

"Love at first sight!" The woman announced and the blonde's eyes widened.

"Wow, calm down," Emma said with both of her hands raised in defence, but her blush only deepened at the suggestion.

"Don't fight it," Mary Margaret laughed as she reached for the cinnamon.

She furrowed her brow at the movement, before she reached into her pocket to pull out her phone.

 _Hey, do you want to get some dinner tomorrow night?_ She read through the message a few times before she clicked 'send'.

The next few seconds were hell as she stared at the screen; however, she was saved any further pain when a notification appeared on her screen.

 _Henry and I usually have dinner at 6, you're more than welcome to join us at our home- Regina._

Emma's eyes widened but she still managed to tap out a reply, _thank you :) I'll see you then._

Mary Margaret pushed a mug towards the blonde with a knowing smirk. She could tell by the grin on the other woman's face that the mayor had said 'yes' to whatever she had suggested.

* * *

Regina tapped her finger against the arm of the waiting chair and blew out a breath of frustration.

Her phone buzzed though to give her some respite from the mind numbing boredom she was currently experiencing as she waited for Whale. Apparently, there was some policy where she had to go and meet with him and see David after what had happened. She honestly had no idea why the curse would have included something so stupid.

She pulled out her phone and smiled when she saw that she had a message from her newest contact. An invitation to dinner was certainly appealing right now and she was slightly disappointed when she saw that the request was for the next day.

She quickly typed outer her reply, silently already planning what would be on the menu.

"Mayor Mills!" Someone shouted just as her phoned buzzed again and she mentally cursed that she wouldn't be able to check the Saviour's message straight away.

She looked up to the source of the familiar voice and the colour slightly drained from her face. She had known there was something she was forgetting.

With a covert sigh, she stood and walked over to the clearly outraged woman.

"Kathryn," she smiled tightly. It suddenly occurred to her that she would need Kathryn for David to get his cursed identity, but she also needed not to deal with the most idiotic love triangle in the world right now.

"Why didn't anyone tell me that David was in the hospital?" The blonde asked, clearly too angry to question the fact that the mayor knew her name despite the fact that they had never been introduced to one another.

The brunette considered her next move, though her mind, though she was more focused on how it was that the woman had found out.

"No one knew who he was," Regina tried, though her mind was still tying to keep up with everything that was going on. At times, she was sure that it was easier to just be evil.

Before Kathryn could say anything, Mary Margaret entered into the waiting room holding a basket of muffins.

"Is John Doe awake?" The schoolteacher asked a nearby nurse.

Kathryn narrowed her eyes at the woman and announced indignantly, "his name is David Nolan and he is my husband!"

Mary Margaret's mouth fell open at the news. When she had imagined what his life before the coma had been like, she had never even thought about the possibility that he could have had a girlfriend or a wife. Especially since she and her class had been his only visitors since she had started volunteering.

Regina placed a hand on the blonde's arm and said, "Kathryn, Mary Margaret helped to take care of David."

The schoolteacher's expression fell into one of shock as she inspected Regina, as if trying to ascertain whether she was in the same woman the whole town had been so intimidated by.

At the same time, Kathryn's facial expression softened as Regina released her arm, "then I suppose that I owe you an apology and thank you."

Mary Margaret nodded, still very much a deer caught in headlights, though she was saved from making any kind of verbal reply by the arrival of Dr Whale. It was in that moment that she realised the nurse she had talked to must have been freaked out and she scurried off to find Whale.

The doctor looked between the trio with a furrowed brow until his gaze fell onto Regina.

"Mayor Mills, you're John Doe's emergency contact?"

"David Nolan," Kathryn corrected through gritted teeth Whale tilted his head at the correction but just nodded as he mentally made a note to get this woman to go to the Nurse's Station once they had finished their discussion.

"Okay…physically Mr Nolan just needs some rest, but preliminary neurological tests suggest full memory loss…"

Kathryn's hand raised to her. Mouth in despair and Regina had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. "I would be prepared to discharge him in a couple of days…into the care of Mrs Nolan if you fill out the appropriate paperwork mayor Mills…"

Regina nodded, though she was already thinking of ways that she could propel this situation to its inevitable conclusion.

"Can we visit him?" Mary Margaret squeaked.

"He may be more prepared for visitors in the morning," Whale replied, before his pager began buzzing, "I should go…please see somebody at the Nurses' station and explain this…situation…"

With that, he rushed away, clearly in no mood to be dealing with martial drama, which left the trio in a painfully awkward silence .

Finally, Mary Margaret couldn't take it anymore and handed the basket over to Kathryn before silently excusing herself.

Kathryn tilted her head as the woman all but ran away. However, she quickly decided that she was just a nervous woman and thought nothing more about her.

She was about to walk over to the Nurses' station, but her steps faltered when Regina placed her hand on her arm again to stop her.

"Out of curiosity…" the mayor began, "how did you find out that he was here?"

"Mr Glass contacted me," Kathryn frowned as she recalled the strange call, "he said that he found some evidence to suggest that John Doe had a wife."

"Well isn't that…wonderful…" Regina said through gritted teeth.

Kathryn nodded and began to walk over to the Nurses again.

Once she was out of earshot, Regina pulled out her phone and dialled a number she didn't think that she would ever need in this alternate reality.

"Hello Madam Mayor," the voice streamed through the device.

"What was your 'evidence' in regards to John Doe?" She asked without pretence.

The brunette could practically feel him smirking on the other end of the phone as he replied, "reporter's intuition," with more confidence than he'd ever had, even as a genie.

"Oh, nothing dearie."

Regina's eyes widened as she instinctively hung up the phone.

"Rumple," she breathed, though she wasn't quite sure why she was actually shocked.

* * *

"What have you done to Sidney?" Regina asked in outrage accompanied by the bell violently ringing out over the Pawn Store door.

Gold looked up from the counter and smirked, "he's very impressionable."

Regina placed both of her hands on the counter and reminded him, "you swore not to harm me."

"I said that I wouldn't harm you," the imp laughed, "you didn't say anything about using pawns. Come now, your majesty, you couldn't have thought that I wouldn't find a loophole."

"What did you do? The brunette asked through gritted teeth. She decided that there was no reason to further question what he had done to Sidney. She knew from experience that the man didn't exactly need much to be convinced into helping whoever needed something from him. She was sure that Rumple had also convinced him to call her 'dearie' when she called him.

"I simply delved into the future so I could plan ways to interfere with your plans. It may not be the crippling pain I would have wished on you, but it's an excellent start, wouldn't you say?" He smirked.

"And how could you have possibly done that without magic?" The mayor asked with narrowed eyes. "I have an inventory full of magical items, I simply sacrificed one for my purposes," he replied.

Regina blew out a breath of frustration and asked, "have you considered how tiring all of this plotting is?"

Rumple frowned and tilted his head, "is the Evil Queen truly trying to get redemption?"

"Yes," the brunette sighed, "and it would be infinitely easier if you wouldn't get in my way."

"Well we both know that isn't going to happen, now don't we?" Rumple giggled, though the sound lacked any real amusement.

"Perhaps you could be happy if you relinquished this need for hate?" She suggested, even though she knew that it was futile.

"I believe you spent too much time being influenced by the Charmings, dearie," the man sneered.

"Which will unfortunately continue if all goes well," Regina sighed, more to herself than to Rumple.

"Well then, perhaps my interference might just be a blessing in disguise," Gold laughed.

The brunette just shook her head and replied, "I can beat anything that you can throw at me."

"I may have taught you everything you know, but you can't imagine everything I know, your majesty," he sneered again.

Regina just let out a frustrated breath and turned to leave when it occurred to her that she had no retort. However, as she made her way to the door, she made a point of knocking a pile of paper off the counter and onto the floor.

S

"What's wrong, mom?" Henry asked as his socked feet padded over to the kitchen island. He had heard a violent chopping sound upon descending the stairs and now that he was in the kitchen, he could see that it was currently the carrots that were under assault.

"Nothing," she replied as if by reflex, not even looking up from the counter as she continued to chop.

"You promised to stop lying to me, mom."

Regina closed her eyes in frustration when she realised what she had done and replied, "sorry…Mr Gold is plotting against me so that I won't get what I want."

"Why?" The boy asked, frowning deeper he had yet to figure out who the pawn store owner could have been, but he had always been sure that he was one of the villains.

"I…may have…locked his girlfriend in a tower and then assigned her cursed identity as a mental institute patient for the past 28 years…"

Henry opened and closed his mouth a few times before he decided that there was no way that he would be able to put a positive spin onto that.

"That's…pretty bad…" he said slowly, "have you tried to do anything about it?"

Regina tilted her head, she was waiting for the other shoe to drop, but for now, it appeared as though her son was willing to accept everything so long as she told him the truth and attempted to fix it.

"I informed him of what I did on the day I woke up and gave him the means by which tho release her…but he isn't exactly the forgiving type," she sighed.

Henry nodded with a furrowed brow and asked, "who is he?"

"Rumplestiltskin," the mayor replied without any hesitation,

The younger brunette's eyes widened, "he's the Dark One?" He asked, thinking back to all of the horrible things detailed in his story book. He could really tell that he was not a good man to have working against them.

"Yes," Regina replied, "he is one of the most powerful people across all of the realms."

"But there is no magic here…what could he possibly do before the curse breaks?" Henry asked. He had spent so long trying to prove that the curse was real that he hadn't really considered all of the complications that would come from being right.

"You would be surprised," she sighed, "when Rumple wants something he will find a way to get it. Right now, he wants to ensure that I don't get what I want."

She knew that Gold needed the curse the curse to break eventually if he was ever going to see Neal again, but the man was nothing if not patient. He had probably known exactly when and how the curse was supposed to break anyway, so he technically had a year to mess with her if he wanted to. That was unless she told him something about his son that would make him want to bring the man here sooner; of course that was not something that she wanted to think about right now.

Henry bit the inside of his cheek for a moment before a look of pure determination overcame his face when he said, "we'll just have to take another route to breaking the curse so he doesn't know how to mess with the operation."

"What do you mean?" Regina skied cautiously.

"True Love's Kiss, we just need Snow and Charming to kiss in the next few days and the curse will break," he said excitedly.

"They kissed under the curse last time," she replied, trying to talk him down, though she decided there're was no reason to mention just how many times they had kissed whilst David was technically in a committed relationship. "At the moment they kind of like each other, Henry, they don't remember loving each other."

The boy deflated, seemingly losing hope, before he sat up straighter when another thought occurred to him, "you and Emma!"

"Henry…" Regina tried weakly. Honestly, the thought of actually trying to be with Emma terrified her, but True Love just took it to another level of fear.

"Hear me out, mom, you went back in time to right your wrongs after trying to save the town the town. It sounds like True Love to me…" he said, practically bouncing in his seat.

Regina was about to object, but the fact was that she did want it to be true and when Henry believed something the way he currently did, he was usually right.

"Maybe," she answered as evenly as possible, before adding, "how do you suppose I get her to realise…the possibility?"

"Just be yourself," he replied with a charming smile, "and make something delicious for dinner tomorrow.

 **Reviews would be much appreciated :)**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter four

Emma pulled out her phone for the tenth time and found it was still 5.32. She blew out a frustrated breath and pocketed the device before continuing to pace the front porch of the Mills' Mansion.

After hours of deliberating, she had decided to wear the traditional black tight jeans, a white tank top and boots covered with her red leather jacket. For some reason, she had been sure that Regina would like it.

Despite labouring over clothing choices, she had still managed to be half an hour early and she decided that if she knocked any earlier than 5.45 that she would look creepy.

She briefly wondered how she could possibly be so nervous when she had not even been in town a full week. Sure, Regina was beautiful and amazing but she didn't feel like that justified the way she felt in that moment. There was the Henry factor, but she didn't feel as though she was as freaked out by her son as she should have been. However, of she had been she was sure that she wouldn't still be in town at this point.

Emma's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door opening. She turned on her heels to face whoever had opened the door and smiled genuinely at the boy looking at her with a smirk on his face.

"Most people knock, you know?" Henry asked.

The blonde blushed deeply at the thought that Regina had sent Henry to get the crazy woman on the porch.

"I…" she began in defence, but no further words came out.

Henry just laughed and said, "why are you so nervous?"

"I'm not nervous," Emma shot back, rather childishly.

The boy just nodded in disbelief but opened the door more fully in invitation, "mom said that dinner won't be ready until six, but you're welcome to come in and wait."

Emma tilted her head and said, "that doesn't sound like something the Evil Queen would do…"

Henry shrugged and began walking into the house, "I was wrong," he said over his shoulder, though he was purposefully non-specific.

The blonde just frowned and began following him, making sure to close the door behind her.

"Miss Swan," Regina called, which sent a shiver up Emma's spine. She watched Henry run upstairs (probably going to do some homework) and followed the mayor's voice towards the kitchen.

The brunette woman just placed the lasagne into the oven as Emma entered the room. She stood up straight and offered the blonde a wide smile of welcome.

"You don't seem the type to be early," Regina laughed walking closer to the counter.

"I'm usually not," Emma replied, just about not stuttering as her eyes raked over Regina in an apron (who wears a tight blue dress while cooking?)

"You're truly an asset to the sheriff's department then," Regina chuckled. Emma just blushed deeper, still standing awkwardly at the doorway and Regina decided that there was a simple way to move this forward. "How would you like a glass of the best apple cider you've ever had?"

The blonde blew out a breath of relief at the offer and made her weary over to the island so that she could take a seat on a stool.

"That's sounds amazing," she replied, resisting the urge to ask for anything stronger.

Regina smiled at her reply and turned to gather what she needed. A moment later, she turned back and placed two glasses and a decanter on the island before she reached forward to pour a fair serving into each glass.

A silence fell between them as they each started drinking and Emma brought her bottom lip into her mouth. She wanted to ask the mayor something desperately but she wasn't sure whether it would kill the mood before dinner.

However, as with their last conversation she felt as though she could ask anything without hurting the woman. Regina seemed always willing to answer questions even if it was usually cryptic.

It was for this reason that she decided to just go for it: "why did Henry think that you're evil?"

Regina took another sip from her drink as she considered how she could answer this. The truth was that he thought that because it was true, which she certainly couldn't say. Finally, she came up with something that wasn't a complete lie.

"I was very strict," she replied.

"Was? What changed?" Emma asked, taking full advantage of this chance. She needed to know just how her son had been treated so that she could know that she definitely had given him his best chance.

"I…was overly protective. I didn't have the most affectionate of mothers so I suppose I was projecting my issues onto Henry…The realisation hit me hard and I knew I had to change my parenting style rather dramatically. It is the major reason that I asked you to stay," Regina replied, looking at the bottom of her glass as she did so. She hadn't planned to bring up her mother, but it was another thing that wasn't technically a lie and would help to get Emma to believe her even if she didn't want to ever talk about Cora.

Emma tilted her head, she suddenly felt very brave (and in the mood to get answers) so she asked, "and why was that again?"

Regina blushed and took another sip of her drink. She could understand why the blonde was so questioning. A lot had happened to her in the space of a few days so she would see why Emma was taking the opportunity to ask about anything and everything that had been on her mind. However, it was becoming rather annoying when she had no answers.

"I…wanted to give Henry the chance to get to know you," Regina said after a moment of deliberation.

"You're lying," Emma instantly shot back, deciding that she could no longer just go along with all of the blatant lies she had been told since she had arrived in town.

The brunette rolled her eyes and mumbled something along the lines of 'stupid superpower'.

At Henry's dumbfounded expression, she quickly added, "Henry mentioned it."

"You're lying again," the blonde stated, narrowing her eyes further.

Regina opened and closed her mouth a few times, before she settled on an explanation that was both not a complete lie and was still plausible.

"You…just make me nervous…but I can assure you that I'm not lying."

The blonde's power flared up again but it was a reasonable explanation and she frowned despite that the omission made her feel butterflies erupt in her stomach.

"I make you nervous?" Emma asked in disbelief, "you know that I don't want to take the kid away, right?"

The brunette nodded immediately, that was certainly not something that she had been worried about, at least not anymore.

"I know you won't, that isn't why you make me nervous," she replied, completely failing to hide the crimson blush creeping up her neck.

Emma inspected her face for a moment before she asked, "then why?"

"It's hard explain," Regina began, desperately trying to find the right word, "I just felt..a…a…"

"Connection?" Emma offered with a smile though she looked slightly cautious at the same time.

The brunette smiled at the word and nodded, "exactly."

A silence fell between the pair as they smiled at each other for a few seconds, before the sound of socks padding against the floor interrupted any further conversation.

"Hey mom," Henry called, staring intently at a piece of paper as he entered the kitchen, "I did my maths homework but I can't figure out this last one."

Regina nodded and accepted the worksheet from him. Her brow creased in much the same way that Henry's had just been as she took a moment to figure out what the problem was.

Emma looked between them and a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips. She had been in many foster homes whereby she had dreamed about having someone who would be willing to help her with her homework.

Regina pointed at the numbers to make her point as she explained, "you just need to find the number that goes into both of these and then put them into brackets."

Henry nodded and accepted the sheet back as he looked at it as if in deep thought. A moment later, a spark of inspiration hit him and he quickly wrote out his answer and showed it to his mom with a proud smile forming on his face.

Regina looked over it one more time before she handed it back to him with a smile and said, "that's right, is that all of your homework?" Henry nodded and she continued, "you should go and get ready for dinner then, it shouldn't be too long now."

The boy ran off to do what he was told and Regina looked over to the blonde still smiling at the scene, "what?" She asked with a frown.

Emma blushed when she realised that she had been caught staring and she replied, "I'm just really glad that you adopted Henry…"

"As am I, dear," Regina laughed, "would you care to wait in the living room for dinner?"

Emma nodded and stood from the stool and trailed Regina towards the next room.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, the trio were sat at the table as they each ate their portion of lasagne.

Emma had to stop herself from devouring the food like a beast, she peeked over to the two brunettes who looked very much civilised, especially when compared to her.

She swallowed hard and brought her elbows away from the tabletop as she looked between her dinner-mates.

Regina instantly noticed just how self-conscious the brunette suddenly looked.

"Make yourself comfortable, dear," the brunette woman said as reassuringly as possible.

Emma answered with a grateful smile and a few minutes later, her worry appeared to have completely evaporated.

The following half-an-hour honestly the best of the deputy's life as they simply ate and talked.

Henry told her all about school, some childhood anecdotes were shared and fairytales were not even mentioned once.

However, this enjoyment came to an end when Regina's phone rang and she excused herself from the table.

"What is it, Graham?" The mayor asked once she was sure that she was sufficiently far away.

"I found Sidney," the sheriff replied, "what do you want me to do with him?"

Regina sighed. She would love to continue her dinner with Emma and their son; however, whatever Gold was planning had to take precedence right now.

"Keep him in the holding cell for now, I'll be right there," she replied after a moment of deciding whether it would be worth it to stay for dessert. Despite the urge she had to stay, she knew that she would be thinking of nothing but Sidney and Gold if she did.

Graham agreed and they each hung up before she walked over to the dining room.

"Something unavoidable has come up at work and I'm afraid I must leave early. I apologise for the inconvenience, Miss Swan, but could you watch Henry until I return?" Regina asked, leaving out the fact that she could quite easily leave her son alone comfortably. She wasn't sure whether this would be too much for the saviour, but the blonde could always just say 'no' of she was too uncomfortable with the idea.

Emma's mouth fell open at the suggestion. A few suggestions for excuses ran through her mind, but nothing actually came out of her mouth.

"Don't worry, Emma, you just need to watch TV with me," Henry supplied with a small laugh. He had to admit that he was actually quite excited by the prospect of spending time with his birth mother. One of the reasons that he had been so willing to look for the blonde after he had found out that he was adopted was because he had always felt as though a big part of his life was missing. Now that he had the woman to potentially find out more about himself without risking losing the woman who had given him everything for the past ten years.

Emma thought about this for a moment before she decided that nothing all that bad could possibly happen.

"I think I can handle that," the blonde finally replied though she looked significantly paler than she had a moment ago.

"I'm sure that you can," Regina said with a smile before she added, "he can watch anything as long as it's PG or below, don't let him convince you that he can watch any Marvel movie and if he gets hungry he can have a fruit snack, he isn't allowed sugar after 4 pm."

Emma's mouth fell open again and she asked, "should I be taking notes?"

"I'lll talk you through all the rules," Henry laughed and Regina just chuckled lightly as she walked over to Henry to drop a kiss on his head.

"I'lol see you later, my little prince," she said before she looked over to the blonde and added teasingly, "I expect him to be in one piece when I return, Miss Swan."

Emma nodded, though her throats constricted when she began to consider all of the things that could possible go wrong in just a couple of hours.

* * *

"What did Gold do to you?" Graham asked as he slammed both of his hands onto the interrogation room's table.

The reporter smirked and replied, "I believe I have the rights to remain silent, sheriff," before he made a zipping motion across his lips.

The former hunter growled in frustration as the man continued to defiantly smirk but he was stopped from asking any further questions by the sound of a knock at the two-way glass.

Graham pushed off the table and left the room into the observation area to find the mayor looking at him expectantly.

The man shook his head and moved forward to accept one of the to-go cups of coffee in her hands.

"He won't tell me anything but he isn't exactly acting like Sidney right now so it isn't easy to get anything out of him."

Regina thought back to all of the different versions of the genie that she had ever known. The thing they all shared was that he was always loyal to a fault.

"Full mind control, perhaps?" Regina asked.

Graham just shrugged, "how the hell would I know?"

The mayor thought about this for a moment but she quickly decided that there was only one way to know for sure and Rumple was not exactly the most forthcoming of people.

"No idea," she sighed before she made her way over to the door to try and get the imp to admit to what he had done to Sidney Glass.

* * *

A random movie was playing on the TV and Emma propped her head up on her closed fist on the arm of the couch. It was so lucky that she had parent-lock to guide her when it came to choosing something Regina-approved.

However, now she had to actually sit next to the ten-year-old and watch it, she never thought that anything could possibly feel as awkward as this.

She felt as though they should be talking about something but she had no idea what that conversation should actually be about.

They had already talked about school and childhood at school during dinner which left one major discussion point about the boy's life: fairytales.

On their drive back to Storybrooke, he had seemed so convinced about his theories, now though, it seemed as though he had completely forgotten everything he had told her, especially about Regina. He seemed impossibly close to someone who he claimed was so evil.

Finally, she decided that she might as well take the tactic that she had with Regina and take the opportunity to get the answers that she had wanted since she had arrived in this town.

"Does any of this seem strange to you?"

Henry looked away from the screen and said, "the movie will make sense if you watch it," before he returned his eyes to the unfolding action. He knew she was nervous but she was seriously overthinking this babysitting thing.

"I'm talking about real life, kid," Emma sighed.

Instantly, Henry gave the blonde his full attention and nodded for her to continue with her explanation.

Emma took a moment to consider her words before everything starting flowing out, "everything just seems to be moving so fast. I met you yesterday and your mom has already invited me to family dinner as if she knows me. She even trusts me enough to let me baby-sit you. Within about two days, I got a roommate, a…son, and a…err..."

"My mom?" Henry asked casually as a smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.

Emma blushed immediately, she was going to open her mouth to say that she had no idea what he as talking about, but instead she sighed and near-mumbled, "is it obvious?"

"You're not very good at hiding it," Henry laughed, deciding to leave out he part that Regina wasn't very good at hiding her feelings either, "what is your point anyway?"

"My point is that everything shouldn't be this easy?" Emma replied.

She knew that this probably wasn't something that she should be telling a young boy, since he shouldn't really know just how difficult life was supposed to be, but she needed answers about this strange little town where it appeared everything was just presented on a platter.

Henry thought back to the few stories that his mother had told him about the alternate timeline and he couldn't help but think that she was right. Of course, this version of Emma had no idea that she had already lived through the more difficult version of the breaking of the curse.

"Why can't things just be easy?" Henry asked with a tilted head.

Emma considered her life. Nothing had ever been easy so it was a fair assumption that wouldn't change simply because she had made a wish on a cupcake.

"It just never is," she replied, deciding that she couldn't go into detail about her life, juts to prove a point.

"Well…why complain would you complain?"

Emma frowned and asked, "how did you get so smart?"

"You've met my mom, right?" Henry laughed, "she read me classical fiction as bedtime stories."

At his words, Emma's frown morphed into a grin. Every time she heard something new about her son's childhood, she felt her guilt lessen. She felt as though she really did give him his best chance, despite all of her concerns about how strange this town was.

The brunette boy smirked at the expression on her face and said, "wow, you really do like her a lot."

With that, he turned to look at the TV again as Emma's blush deepened, she really hoped that she wasn't this obvious around Regina.

"What about the fairytale thing?" The blond asked after a moment of silence.

"What about it?" Henry asked, not looking away from the TV so that he wouldn't notice just how nervous he suddenly felt. He had promised his mom that he wouldn't try and convince her that the curse was real just yet.

"You was very passionate about it a couple of days ago and now it just seems like you've completely forgotten about it."

"…my mom talked to me," Henry replied, making sure that he wasn't lying.

"I thought that she sent you to a shrink?" Emma asked with narrowed eyes. Considering the fact that Henry wasn't even looking at her, she was sensing the beginnings of a lie.

"She said that I don't have to go anymore," Henry replied as he bit the inside of his cheek. He really wanted to just tell her the truth.

"Seriously? I've only been in town for a couple of day, there's no way that you could have been cured that quickly."

The boy clenched both of his fists and tried to count to ten in his mind but it was too late. Anger had already burst through his system. It was an overwhelming feeling to learn that she basically thought he was crazy, especially after he had gained the acceptance he had always wanted from his mother.

He turned to look at her and jumped to his feet, "you think I'm crazy?" He asked accusatorially.

Emma inspected the angered expression on his face. It was clear that his talk with Regina did nothing to end his delusions.

"It's pretty insane, kid, didn't you're mom tell you that she doesn't believe any of it?" She asked, raising her hands in an effort to calm him down.

"My mom told me that I'm right about everything!" He shouted, before he dashed out of the house.

Emma sat in complete shock for a few moments, before her limbs finally reacted and she went after him.

She made it to the open front door. The boy was no where insight and she let out a breath of frustration through gritted teeth.

"Shit," she muttered.

* * *

Gold smirked at the sound of the bell ringing out just as he had expected it would any moment now.

"The news is all around town that you arrested Mr Glass, sheriff, what exactly are you holding the poor man on?" He asked with a tilted head as he inspected the two brunettes walking towards the counter.

Graham just narrowed his eyes at the man and Regina asked, "what did you do to him?"

"I already told you, he is very open to suggestion. Do you honestly believe that I would waste my little magic on controlling a genie?" Gold smirked.

Regina sighed. It was times like this that she really missed her fireball power.

"I have another deal to make," Regina replied, wishing that one would have sufficed, but this was precisely why she hadn't told him everything before. "I assume that you haven't seen past the curse breaking?" The brunette asked after both Graham and Gold raised their eyebrows at her.

The pawn store owner nodded after a moment of consideration.

"I have met your son and I know where he is," Regina replied, "but if you want this information and for the curse to break so that you can use it, I need an air tight contract."

Rumple tightened his jaw. He knew that there was no way that the mayor could be lying considering that everyone in this town should be at least 200 years too young to even know that he'd ever had a son. At the same time, he couldn't be sure whether her information was complete, especially since the expression on her face made him think that there was something that she didn't want to tell him about Baelfire.

"How can I be sure that this information will be worth my time?"

"You'll never know if you don't make the deal. I know you're a patient man but I'm sure you've been itching to know whether your son is actually alive following his disappearance," Regina replied with a tilt of her head. She knew that she was sinking low by blackmailing him with information about his lost son, especially since she was also talking about Henry's father. She had, of course, considered telling the boy but she had decided that she would be fair to Emma. If the blonde never got her memories back, she would eventually need to be told that her first love was the son of Rumplestiltskin. This was the best plan that she could come up with to holt the plans of the insufferable imp.

Gold was about to say something, but his attempt was interrupted by the sound of Regina's phone ringing.

The brunette frowned at Graham before she pulled out the device and groaned at the name on her screen. She hadn't even gone an hour, surely Emma could handle a ten-year-old for a hour? She allowed the phone to ring for a few moments as she said to Rumple, "you have until tomorrow morning to decide or I will never tell you."

The imp narrowed his eyes at the woman but didn't say anything as he just nodded in thought.

Regina turned to Graham and said, "release Sidney in the morning."

The sheriff nodded and the mayor began walking towards the door as she answered on the last ring while she pushed through the door.

"What happened?" She asked instantly as she walked out onto Main Street.

"He ran away," Emma replied, not even thinking about acting indignant at the fact that Regina had automatically assumed that she had done something wrong, she knew that she had royally messed up.

The brunette used her free hand to pinch the bridge of her nose and she took a few moments in the hopes that she wouldn't come off as too angry.

"You only had to watch TV with him. What could have possibly gone wrong?"

"I…may have called him crazy," Emma said in a near whisper.

"And why would you do that?" The brunette asked, instantly regretted all of the times that she had all but said the same thing to her own son.

"He said that he still believes in the fairytale thing…I just thought he'd stopped since he hadn't tried to talk about it for a while and he said that he doesn't have to see Dr Hopper anymore. I said that you don't believe him and he flipped out and he ran away," Emma blurted out.

Regina sighed deeply and shook her head. That was quite literally the worst thing that she could have said to the boy who had only just started trusting her again.

"Just go home, Miss Swan, I know exactly where he is," Regina replied before hanging up without another word.

* * *

About ten minutes later, Regina pulled up to Henry's castle and instantly saw him leaning against it with his legs crossed.

The brunette quickly got out of the car and the boy looked up from his lap at the sound of the familiar clicking heels.

"How many times of I have to tell you not to sit on wet dirt?" Regina teased when she was close enough to be heard.

Henry offered her a weak smile before he brought his legs up and placed his head on his knees.

The older brunette moved forward and sat next to the boy, seemingly forgetting her own rule for a moment and she placed her arm around his shoulders.

They sat in silence for a few moments, as Henry allowed himself to release his legs and he leaned slightly into his mother.

"I warned you to not try and convince her, she's a very stubborn woman," Regina said softly.

The boy tensed and shifted away slightly, though he didn't attempt to move her arm.

"It wasn't her," he whispered.

Regina frowned, "what was it that upset you so badly then?"

"She said that you told her that you don't believe me. We're you just lying so that I would stop thinking you're evil?"

"Do you honestly think that I have the imagination to come up with such an elaborate story?" She asked with a little laugh, "if I was planning to lie, why would I chose to include time-travel?"

Henry took a moment to think about this before he shifted back closer to her, "I guess...but I think that you should show me the dragon."

Regina brought her hand to his arm and shook her head with a little laugh, "how about some less deadly proof?"

Henry looked at her with a furrowed brow and nodded for her to continue.

"In this timeline, I should have never seen your storybook, right?"

He nodded and continued, "you didn't see it until yesterday, I made sure to never let it out of my sight."

"Well, you can ask me about anything except for what's on the last few pages," she chuckled.

"What happened to the last pages?" Henry frowned.

"You ripped them out so that I couldn't know that Emma was the saviour," she replied as she lightly stroked his hair.

"This alternate me sounds like a jerk," Henry frowned.

"Considering everything I did to Emma just for being your birth mother, I believe that your caution was justified."

"Well at least now you have another chance," he smiled as he stood up and extended his hand to help her from the dirt.

Regina frowned at his action, "I thought you wanted you proof?"

The boy shrugged and said, "I've read the book like three times, we could just go home and you could tell me all of the things that it missed out."

Regina smiled broadly and she accepted his hand, "that sounds like a great idea."

 **A/N Reviews would be much appreciated :)**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter five

Mary Margaret smiled as she smelled the flowers she had just put in the vase. Even if the bouquet was off both the Nolans she still found herself ecstatic when they had been delivered to her door.

Her attention was drawn away from the plants at the sound of the door opening and slamming shut.

The brunette frowned and looked over to the blonde woman currently flopping onto their couch.

Mary Margaret raised an eyebrow at the despondency on her friend's face and she rounded the counter so that she could make her way over to her. The schoolteacher settled on the coffee table and tilted her head at the deputy sheriff.

"Are you okay, Emma?" She asked when the green eyes finally looked up at her.

Emma sighed deeply and shifted so that she was sitting up straight on the couch, before she said, "I screwed up."

"How can you screw up dinner?" Mary Margaret asked, trying not to smirk since she could see just how serious this had to be.

"I called Henry crazy and he ran away," Emma sighed, visibly cringing when she though back to what she had said.

Mary Margaret's mouth fell open slightly, she didn't know what she had been expecting but she was sure that wasn't it.

"Is…he okay?" She finally asked, deciding that there was no point in berating her further, she was sure that the blonde was doing it to herself right now.

"Regina just texted me, she found him and took him home…"

Mary Margaret relaxed slightly at the news and asked, "is Regina angry with you?"

"I'm not sure," the blonde huffed, "she sent me home but she just sent me a message inviting me to dinner tomorrow morning…so I'm confused," she pouted and flopped back down to the couch.

The brunette frowned and tilted her head, "I would've imagined that she would be angry…"

Emma thought about this for a moment and shook her head, "she sounded like it's happened before, she even knew where to find him…"

"He is a known flight risk," the schoolteacher reasoned, "he made it to Boston on her watch…"

Emma just sighed and nodded, deciding that there was no point in mentioning how strange this town was agin. Some things felt familiar while others felt like they were happening wrong. But she knew that Mary Margaret would just call her crazy again if she brought this up.

It was for this reason that she chose to instead just change the subject.

"Who gave you the flowers?" She asked.

A wistful smile overcame her face and she replied, "David."

"David?"

"Oh right, they found out that John Doe's name is David Nolan."

Emma opened her mouth to ask how that was possible, but she received the answer when Mary Margaret handed her the 'thank you' card.

' _Thank you for your help- David + Kathryn Nolan.'_

"He's married?" Emma almost groaned in sympathy.

The brunette cringed and looked at her lap, "yeah…"

"You know that this means that you probably shouldn't have a crush on him, right?" Emma replied with a tilted head and sympathy written across all of her features.

"It's a harmless crush, besides, I have a date with Doctor Whale tomorrow…"

The blonde gave her a sceptical look as she replied, "well, I hope your date goes well…"

"I hope yours goes well too," the schoolteacher countered.

Emma hiked herself up on her elbows and tilted her head, "who said it's a date?"

"Is Henry going with you?"

"We're going after school starts…" Emma frowned.

"Then it's obviously a date," the brunette laughed as she stood from the coffee table so that she could move back over to the flowers.

Emma sat up so that she could look over the back of the couch and she replied, "it's not a date."

"Whatever you say," Mary Margaret as she picked up the vase to place it next to her bed.

* * *

Regina opened her eyes and felt a weight on her arm, furrowing her brow she yawned and inspected the small shape next to her. She smiled when she realised that Henry had fallen asleep in her bed after she told him all about the Enchanted Forest, he seemed so much happier when she wasn't lying to him, she was beginning to wonder why she ever thought it was a good idea.

"Henry," she said softly.

He shook his head and burrowed further into her side and mumbled, "five more minutes mommy."

Regina could hold back a small laugh as she replied, "you need to get ready for school."

He groan again, though this time his eyes actually opened, "but your bed is so comfortable," he said before he turned away from her and pushed himself further into the mattress.

The older brunette shook her head at his antics and she grabbed him by the waist as she lightly tried to pull him off the bed, but he promptly went limp.

"Henry," she tried to scold but it came out as more of a laugh.

"I'll get up in a minute," he mumbled.

"I'll tickle you awake if you don't get up now," she said with a raised eyebrow.

Henry flipped over and looked at her straight in the eye, "you wouldn't."

"You know I would."

He decided to call her on her bluff and turned back around so that he could grab onto the pillow. Regina shook her head and she launched forward and proceeded to tickle his sides and he began to laugh as he tried to get away.

"Stop," he laughed.

"What was that? Carry on?" She asked as she continued to tickle him until he rolled off the bed.

"Fine, I'm up," he said in mock outrage as he straightened out his pyjamas.

"Well now you know not to cross me," she challenged with a smirk.

Henry pretended to ponder this for a moment before he reached forward and grabbed the pillow closest to him, "I think I'll take my chances," he replied before he threw the pillow at her and ran out of the room.

Regina caught the pillow with a laugh before she set off to chase her ten-year-old son to get him back.

* * *

 _"He's not your son, he's mine," Emma shouted._

 _Regina's expression hardened, but not before the saviour had the chance to see the clear hurt that he was experiencing._

 _The Evil Queen thrust her arms forward and the blonde went flying back a few steps. Emma took in a sharp intake of breath and looked up at the mayor in complete shock. She wanted to say something but all words died on her tongue when the woman disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke._

 _A woman with pixie cut hair ran to her side._

 _"Emma, are you okay?" Snow White asked._

"Are you okay?" Mary Margaret asked again when she didn't get any sort of reply.

"Your alarm was going off and you looked really…distressed," the brunette frowned, resisting the urge to place a gentle hand on the grown woman's arm.

Emma just shook her head and muttered, "just a weird dream."

"I'll go and make some coffee…when are you meeting Regina?"

The blonde looked over to the clock and replied, "in about a hour."

Mary Margaret nodded. She really felt like she should be doing more but she couldn't justify wrapping her arms around an adult (who she barely know) in a strong hug and she ask to her to tell her about her nightmare. Plus, she was sure that Emma certainly wouldn't accept any attempts at a hug.

As the thought entered her mind, she just smiled and awkwardly left the room.

Emma sighed and leaned against the headboard. She was trying to decide whether that dream had been a memory or a very strange dream. She had the distinct feeling that it was the latter, but she refused to believe that could be true.

She decided that she really needed to go and speak with Regina.

* * *

Regina walked into the pawn store, she had been informed that Graham had already released Sidney from the holding cell, which meant that it was now or never to find out whether Rumple was going to agree to her terms or not.

She pushed through the door and walked into the store, but she stopped herself from saying anything when she saw Belle (or was it Lacey?) standing next to the store owner.

The woman looked between the pair with a frown and she asked, "what's going on?"

"I just have some business to attend to with the mayor, dear, could you go and finish the inventory please?" Gold asked softly.

The woman frowned but nodded as she made her way to the back.

"How did that happen?" Regina asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"I discharged her and gave her a job," he explained.

"So, you've been forced to actually be a decent human being?" The brunette smirked.

"I didn't have much of an option considering that she has no memories," Rumple sneered.

"It must be horrible to be nice to the woman that you love," she quipped.

Mr Gold just narrowed his eyes and replied, "I believe that we have a deal to complete, your majesty?"

"As long as you have drawn up the contract."

"You know me far too well," he sneered as he reached below the counter and pulled out a piece of paper.

Regina shook her head as she began reading it through, making sure that she didn't spit any of his usual tricks.

"I believe it was you who inserted yourself into my life," she replied with her brows knit together as she continued reading it a few more times.

"It was necessary, now tell me."

Regina rolled her eyes and finally signed the bottom of the contract, "he lives in New York, his name is Neal Cassidy and once the curse has broken I will make sure that you are given his exact address so that you can go and find him," she answered.

He sighed and shook his head, "that is information that I would have been able to find out myself, what makes that worth this contract?"

"Because there is something else that you wouldn't have been able to find out easily…Henry is Baelfire's son," Regina said, making a split second decision. It could only serve as protection for her son.

"And why would you want me to know that?" Rumple asked with narrowed eyes as he considered whether she could possibly be telling the truth.

"You would have found out eventually and I'm trying to speed everything along," she replied.

"And how exactly are you 'speeding along' breaking the curse?" He asked, deciding that she was telling the truth, though he was sure that he would need some more time to process the fact that his son could have a child of his own.

"You designed the curse, I assumed that you would be able to help with that," Regina said with a clenched jaw.

"The saviour needs to perform an act of True Love," he said in thought. "Which means that she needs to learn another enough to break the curse."

"What if she is able to remember the original timeline?" Regina suggested.

"Assuming that she truly loved someone in that timeline, remembering would mean that a kiss would break the curse."

"But why exactly does she not remember? She stopped the trigger with me…"

"I suppose that it's possible that she has all of her memories, but her mind has been reverted back to a state of disbelief and not allowing herself to believe is preventing her from remembering."

Regina frowned as she considered whether this would be possible. She decided that the saviour was certainly stubborn enough for it to be true.

"So I just need to maker her belie-" she was interrupted by the sound of a motorcycle. "August," she said aloud, remembering more of what happened. She quickly turned and left the store without another word to Gold, who just rolled his eyes and walked off in search of Belle.

Regina quickly crossed Main Street until she was standing in front of the bike as the man was removing his helmet.

August blinked a couple times at the very familiar woman before he asked, "can I help you?"

"I need your help to get Emma to believe in the curse," she answered, glad that there was another person to talk to who actually remembered the Enchanted Forest, even if she was sure that the man wasn't exactly excited to be talking to her.

"What?" He asked nervously.

"Stop pretending Pinocchio; I know exactly why you're here, we now have a common goal."

He looked around briefly wondering whether he was dreaming. This was not what he had been expecting when he had began his trip to Storybrooke.

"Why would you want the curse to break?" He whispered, suddenly very aware of the fact that the two of them were receiving questioning looks from confused passersby.

He brought his leg over the bike and motioned for Regina to follow him into the diner.

"I prefer it to be broken," Regina replied as they walked up the steps and up to the door.

August looked at her sceptically and they each slid onto the seats of the nearest empty table.

"Why?" He asked.

Regina sighed, though she was grateful that he was even talking to her. She half expected that he would want to slap her.

"It's very difficult to explain," she sighed as she thought back to what it had been like trying to explain everything to Graham. It was not a conversation that she had the time or the energy for right now.

"So how do you suppose that I can help you?" August frowned.

"I hope that you could help Emma believe so that the curse will break faster…"

August crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes, "and why should I trust you?"

"You're under no obligation to trust, I just suggest that you try in both of our best interests," she replied.

He inspected her for a moment, clearly thinking overtime about all of the things that she could have possibly been planning. But he was interrupted before he could make a decision, he was interrupted by a new arrival.

"Hey Regina," Emma said awkwardly, both because this was the first time that she had seen the woman since she had lost her son and because she was worried that she might have been worried that she had interrupted an actual date.

Regina looked up at Emma and smiled brightly. August raised an eyebrow at the brunette, he was beginning to form a theory as to why Regina was so eager to break the curse.

"I was just welcoming our newest visitor. August Booth, this is Emma Swan," she explained.

Emma relaxed marginally at the news, until she went to smile at him and frowned instead at just how familiar he looked.

"It's nice to meet you," the blonde finally said and then turned her attention back to Regina. An image of an enraged version of the mayor magically throwing her back flashed through the blonde's mind and she flinched. Regina frowned at the woman but she was stopped from asking if she was okay when she was cute short by August:

"Thank you, Mayor Mills," he said before he scampered away to another table.

Emma took his seat a moment later and she and the mayor sat in an awkward silence.

Finally, the blonde thought of something to say, "are you always this nice to visitors?"

"As mayor…I fully support tourism," Regina replied with her best mayoral smile.

"Storybrooke doesn't seem like a very touristy place," Emma frowned.

"All the more reason to be inviting to the visitors we do get," the woman replied, hoping that her smile still looked convincing.

"Why are you always lying to me?" Emma sighed, deciding that there was no reason to continue believing all the lies. Especially if Regina was enabling Henry's theories and then telling her that she didn't believe him.

The brunette brought to deny it, but it wasn't as if lying would get her out of this. Was it time to tell the truth?

"If I told you, I don't think you would believe me."

Emma leaned forward slightly, very eager to hear the truth even if a part of her kind of wanted to continue in denial.

"Everything Henry told you is…true…" Regina replied looking at the blonde cautiously.

Emma tilted her head, not sensing any lie for the first time. The woman just stood up and shook her head.

"You're all insane," she announced and left the diner without another word.

Regina's head fell into her hands and she sighed deeply for a moment. She finally looked up when August tentatively took the vacated seat.

"That looks like it didn't go well," he said.

"It most certainly did not," Regina sighed again.

 **A/N Reviews would be much appreciated :)**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter six

Henry sat cross-legged on the ground as he looked through his storybook. He knew that he couldn't get away with going to see his mom again sat lunch so staring at his storybook was his only access to fairytales while he was school. He was so relieved that it was lunch now since he had already gotten in trouble during maths, luckily, he was only told to just put the book away and Miss Blanchard hadn't just taken it off him.

The boy turned to the next page smiling at the image of his grandfather proposing to his grandmother. He was about to start reading but the sound of a cane hitting the asphalt caught his attention and he frowned. When he peered over the top of his book, he narrowed his eyes at the smirking man, though he suddenly felt very tense now that he knew was the Dark One.

"M-Mr Gold," Henry stuttered, slamming his book shut as he rose to his feet.

Rumple tilted his head at the boy. He would have never noticed before Regina had told him, but the little brunette certainly bore some resemblance to his son.

The eyes and chin obviously came from his Charming DNA, but the nose and hair reminded him a lot of Baelfire all those centuries ago.

He would almost regret what he was about to do if he didn't know that it would result in Baelfire being allowed to meet his son, preferably without the complication of two mothers.

"Hello Henry," he smiled.

The boy looked around the playground but no one seemed to notice the Pawn Store owner, probably because Henry had chosen the most secluded part of the area where the teacher wouldn't try to get him to socialise with others. He had tried making friends before, but it didn't take him long to realise that he was the only child who ever advanced a year (both in age and in school grade).

Henry tried to say something but nothing came out. He had never been afraid when his mother acted 'evil' because he knew that she loved him too much to ever actually hurt him.

Rumplestiltskin, on the other hand, would probably kill a baby to get what he wanted. Plus, there was also the fact that he had no idea what this man was currently planning since Regina had told him that they had come to an agreement where he would stop interfering. However, judging by the look on his face, the man was certainly planning some interference.

Rumple looked at the suspicious on his grandson's face and he tried his best to offer him a reassuring smile.

"I'm aware that you and your mother are trying to find a way to break the Dark Curse and I believe that I have found the quickest way to do that."

Henry tilted his head, he had the distinct feeling that the man's method wouldn't be the most peaceful of ways, but he had no doubt that it would certainly be the quickest.

"How?" Henry asked, subconsciously taking a step away from the man.

Gold reached into the messenger bag slung over his arm and pulled out a plastic container and handed it to the brunette.

Henry frowned, but cautiously placed his storybook next to the backpack behind him and he took the container with his brows knit together in confusion.

"An apple turnover," he said slowly before his eyebrows shot up in realisation, "it has the sleeping curse in it?"

"Smart boy," Rumple smirked, "if you eat that pastry then you will be put under the sleeping curse and Emma will have no option but to wake you with True Love's Kiss."

Henry considered this for a moment. It made sense to him, but he couldn't help but think about what his mother had told him about having to remember loving another person for the kiss to work. But if their theory of Emma having to believe to remember, then maybe seeing a sleeping curse would make that happen?

"My mom said that the contract says that you're allowed to hurt me," Henry quickly said. He didn't know what being under a Sleeping Curse was like, but he couldn't imagine that it would be pleasant experience.

"Which is precisely why I have modified this Sleeping Curse. Your soul will simply be in Limbo until your mother wakes you up. It will be a completely painless experience."

Henry just narrowed his eyes further and Rumple stopped himself from sighing. He could understand why the boy didn't trust him, but he didn't think it would take this long to manipulate a ten-year-old boy.

The man reached into his bag again, but this time handed the contract to the brunette.

Henry took it and read it over quickly. Though there were many words that he didn't understand, he got the general gist of it, it said that if Regina told him what he wanted to know about Baelfire, then he would stop interfering with the breaking of the curse.

"This doesn't say that you put me under a Sleeping Curse," Henry said ash he looked up to the man.

Rumple smirked and pulled a UV light out of his pocket, "shine that over the bottom of the page," he explained.

The boy did as he was told and his eyes widened when he saw the new words appear on the page.

"'I agree that the curse will be broken by the means of a Mills going under a Sleeping Curse,'" he read aloud and frowned deeply when he noticed that there was no mention of True Love's Kiss, "you can't put invisible ink on a contract," Henry quickly argued.

"In this realm perhaps," Rumple replied, "UV lights don't exist in the Enchanted Forest, so there is no law against using them in a magical contract. This is just as binding as any of my other contracts…"

The brunette blinked a couple of times, he wasn't sure how to reply to that.

Finally, though, he decided on a question, "so if I eat this now, I'll go under a Sleeping Curse and Emma will remember and then break the curse?"

"Exactly," Rumple agreed, but held out a hand to stop the boy from opening the container, "you shouldn't eat it just yet, your mother needs to be aware of what is happening so that she doesn't get a call from the school telling her that her son has fallen unconscious. It would be right to worry your mother, now would you?"

Henry furrowed his brow, he had a nagging feeling that there was something that the man wasn't mentioning but he quickly put this feeling aside when he decided that this had to be the quickest way to break the curse. He could tell that Regina was desperate for the curse to break as soon as possible. She so obviously wanted Emma to go back to who she was after the curse had originally broken.

"Okay," he finally said.

"You're going to need to show that contract to your mother," Rumple replied with a triumphant smiled spreading across his face.

* * *

Regina blew out a breath to continue pacing across the floor of the sheriff's station.

Graham and August each stared at her expectantly from their positions sat on the computer chairs at the deputy's desk.

Graham exchanged a look with the stranger next to him who just shrugged, clearly just as confused as he was.

"Are you okay, Regina?" The sheriff asked.

Regina just shook her head and carried on pacing.

"She freaked Emma out by telling her that the curse is actually real," August explained when the woman made no attempt to even open her mouth.

"Oh," Graham replied, "and who are you again?"

"August Booth," he smiled and extended his hand.

"Graham Humbert," the other man replied as he accepted the handshake, though he still wasn't quite sure why this new arrival was so aware of the existence of the curse.

Regina finally stopped pacing, very annoyed that they were wasting time with introductions. Emma was probably packing up her bug as they spoke and she had no idea how to stop her from leaving town. It wasn't as though it had worked out well the last time that she had sent Graham to stop someone from crossing the town line.

Graham noticed the frustration on her face and held up his hands in surrender, "why would you tell Emma that the curse is real?"

"She asked me to stop lying," Regina huffed and sat on the edge of the desk sat next to her.

"And…how would she know you were lying?" Graham frowned. He had always been under the impression that Regina was fairly good liar considering everything she had ever done in her life.

"She has this…superpower…thing…it's not important. What is important is that I terrified her and she is now probably going to leave town," she said as she ran her hand over her face.

"She can't leave town," August piped up.

Regina tilted her head at the former-puppet and asked, "what makes you so sure?"

"I've done my research before coming here," he explained, "the saviour can't cross the town line until the curse is broken."

Regina knit her eyebrows together and nodded, "you're right, she couldn't leave last time."

August looked over to Graham to see if he knew what she was talking about. When he noticed that the other man didn't look the slightest bit fazed, he asked, "last time?"

"She knows the future," Graham replied as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Oh…okay…" August said meekly.

"So what do you suppose I do?" She asked looking directly at the 'real boy'.

"You're the one who knows the future," he replied with a nervous laugh.

Regina sighed and rolled her eyes, "this timeline has already changed enough at this point that I have no idea how to possibly fix things."

"Well, now you know that Emma can't leave town. She'll eventually come back and talk to you and you can try again?" Graham suggested.

Regina sighed again, it wasn't much of a plan but things didn't seem quite as dire as they did before.

"I suppose," she sighed, "I suppose I should go to work while I wait."

* * *

Regina pushed her key out of the front door and held it open to allow her son to walk into the mansion ahead of her. Henry clutched his bag tightly to his shoulders and smiled weakly at his mother as he walked into the house.

"Are you okay, Henry?" Regina asked with a frown as she walked over to him, completely forgetting to close the door behind her.

The boy worried at his lip. He considered defying Mr Gold and not telling his mother about his plan. He knew that there was no way in hell that she was going to agree to it.

However, he finally decided that if he was going to eat a poisoned turnover, it would be better for his safety if he told his mother everything first.

"Mr Gold visited me at school," Henry finally admitted, he had been spending the whole ride home trying to figure out the best way to tell Regina, but he honestly couldn't think of anything that wouldn't make her angry.

"What?!" she all but shouted.

Henry quickly held up his hands and said, "mom, calm down, he actually made some good points."

With that, he pulled the plastic container out of his bag and Regina narrowed her eyes at it.

"Henry," she said cautiously.

"Listen mom," he said desperately, "if I go under a Sleeping Curse, Emma will be forced to remember that she loves me and then she can break both curses at the same time."

"And what if she doesn't remember? There is no way to tell how long the curse will be able to keep you alive without magic…"

Henry swallowed hard at the pain playing across her features, he knew how much this situation had hurt her the first time around, but the results were undeniable.

"This will force her to remember," he repeated adamantly and moved to pop the lid of the container.

"Henry Daniel Mills, put that down this second!" she scolded.

The boy just shook his head and said, "we have to try."

With that, he made to pick up the pastry only to have the container swiftly stolen from his hand.

"Mom," he whined.

"I will not allow you to go under a Sleeping Curse," Regina replied indignantly.

"You signed a contract that says that I have to," Henry shot back.

"I most certainly did not," Regina replied shaking his head vehemently.

Henry reached into his bag again and pulled out the contract and the UV light that Rumple had given to him. He handed the paper over to his mother and shone the light at the bottom for her.

Regina's brows knit together as she considered whether this could possibly be allowed. There was no way that any lawyer in this realm would ever take the case of the Sleeping Curse so she had no doubt that this contract was actually binding.

"I know that he tricked you, I'm not mad," Henry said when his mother made no attempt to speak.

"It doesn't say that you have to go under the curse, it only says that a Mills has to," she replied.

Henry just shrugged his shoulders, "he's probably just covering his bases."

"If Emma is unable to wake you up, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

Henry just smiled and reached for the turnover, "you just have to believe in her, mom."

Regina thought about this for a moment. She certainly did believe in the saviour, but the Emma who she placed her belief in had been in Storybrooke for more than two days and she was just beginning to accept the possibility that Snow White and Prince Charming were her parents. Emma, as she currently was, could easily take more time than they had to start believing and that was assuming that they were even correct about Emma having her memories in the first place.

She knew that she wouldn't be able to live without Henry for the rest of her life.

She looked down at the contract one more time and swallowed hard. It was quite clear that someone would need to take on this course, but she knew that it wouldn't be her son.

"I can't take that chance," she said before she picked up the turnover and bit into it without any hesitation.

* * *

Emma ran her hand over the steering wheel of her bug and took a deep breath as she considered what she was doing.

When she had been laying on her bed thinking about what Regina had said to her, she had seriously considered just up and leaving without a word to anyone. She could go back to her normal life and just try and forget everything about this strange town. She was sure that she would occasionally think about Regina and Henry, but other than some fleeting thoughts, she was sure that she could denial her way out of ever believing that this was even a real town. It could have all just been a fever dream for all that she knew.

However, the thought of leaving soon left her mind. She found that it wasn't something that she could do; leaving just didn't feel like a real option the more that she thought about it.

She would always be wondering how Henry and Regina were and she found that she also cared about just leaving Mary Margaret without saying goodbye.

It was for this reason that when she went to drive away towards the town line, she instinctively decided to turn towards Milfin Street. The blonde quickly rationalised this as the fact that she needed to give Regina another chance to explain herself. She had stormed out of the diner without so much as a glance over her shoulder, so maybe she just needed to give Regina more time since there could easily be some believable explanation, even if the deputy couldn't think of anything plausible.

She took a deep breath and finally moved towards the side so that she could open the car door and step out onto the Mills' driveway.

Emma instantly frowned when she noticed that the front door was wide open. She felt and unsettling feeling erupt in her stomach at the sight and she couldn't put aside the thought that there was something wrong.

She reached for the gun at her hip, but frowned when her hand came into contact with air. Considering the fact that she had yet to actually be issued her badge and gun, why the hell would she reach for a holster that she'd never even had before?

The blonde quickly shook her head to push aside the thoughts that there was anything weird about it and she slowly, cautiously started walking towards the open door. The closer she got, she started to hear voices streaming through the open doorway.

"You just need to believe, mom," Henry whined desperately.

Emma frowned as her steps faltered slightly, were they still talking about the 'curse'?

There was a pause and the blonde finally took a step forward so that she could actually see into the foyer. Henry and Regina were facing each other and neither appeared to notice that they now had a spectator. Emma's frown only deepened when she noticed that they appeared to be arguing about a pastry.

"I can't take that chance," Regina shot back and lifted the pastry to take a bite out of it.

Emma's eyebrows rose as she considered just how dramatic that had been, she was about to open her mouth to apologise for interrupting whatever this was, but she clamped her mouth shut when Regina's body went prone and she flopped to the ground.

"Mom!" Henry shouted, sliding onto his knees so that he could be next to her.

"What the hell?" Emma muttered as she took a couple steps forwards and sank to her knees next to the mayor. Despite the fact that her skin was quickly paling, she was breathing steadily. It was almost as if she were sleeping.

Henry furrowed his brow at the blonde he hadn't noticed before, but he quickly pushed his surprise aside and leaned down to kiss the mayor on the forehead. The boy looked at the unconscious woman expectantly and waited a few seconds. Any trace of a hopeful smile fell away from his face before he kissed her again, three times in quick succession. When nothing happened again he turned his attention to Emma who was currently checking for a pulse.

"Kiss her!" he demanded.

The blonde looked at him disbelievingly for a moment before she shook her head.

"This is a Sleeping Curse, you have to give her True Love's Kiss so that she can wake up."

"That won't wake her up, she needs paramedics, not a kiss, Henry," Emma sighed as she felt a steady pulse under her fingers.

Henry opened his mouth to protest, but Emma just held out her hand and used her other one to pull her phone out of her pocket so that she could dial 911.

* * *

-Twenty minutes later-

Emma propped her head up on her open plan as she looked around the empty waiting room.

The silence was deafening but it was soon broken by the sound of Henry shifting nervously in his seat next to hers.

"Why can't you just believe?" he mumbled.

"Because it is a scientific fact that kissing someone won't wake them up from unconsciousness, you need to understand the difference between reality and fantasy here, Henry," she replied and moved to place her hand over his, no matter how awkward the action felt. However, the boy quickly moved his hand away from his lap and Emma sighed in defeat. It wasn't as though she had imagined that staying in Storybrooke for a month would mean that she would have to sit in a hospital discussing the realities of a Sleeping Curse with her son while his adoptive mother was apparently under said type of curse. She honestly had no idea what she was supposed to do if Regina didn't wake up soon and explain everything. Hopefully she would also be discharged today so that she wouldn't have to babysit Henry again. It hadn't particularly gone well last time and she wouldn't have Regina to call if he ran away again.

Henry just looked at her in disbelief and shook his head, "you were there when she ate it, you know what happened…"

"No, I saw her eat a pastry and fall unconscious and I have no idea why. She could have been allergic to it or there could have been some kind of poison in it. Once the doctor has treated her, she'll be fine," Emma replied adamantly.

"Dr Whale won't be able to break the curse," Henry mumbled as he crossed his arms and slouched further into the seat.

"If you're so convinced that it had a Sleeping Curse in it, then why would she eat it?"

"Because she signed a contract that said that a Mills had to go under a Sleeping Curse," he replied, not sounding at all fazed by his words.

"So she essentially signed a contract agreeing to feed you poison? Why would she do that?" Emma asked indignantly, though she wasn't quite sure why she felt so outraged considering the fact that she was supposed to be against the boy's theories.

"Mr Gold used an invisible pen, so that you can only see it with a UV light," he answered.

The blonde just scoffed at his explanation and said, "then the contract isn't valid."

"It's different in the Enchanted Forest…because if magic and stuff…" Henry frowned as he tried to remember Rumple's explanation.

Emma tilted her head and smirked slightly, "you don't know the reason, do you?"

"I was born here so I don't understand everything. But I know that Rumpelstiltskin always found a way to trick people when he wanted to."

Emma just shook her head again. She really didn't have the mind space or energy to try and decode what he was talking about, her mind was still too occupied with whether Regina had woken up yet.

"Just drop it, kid," she mumbled.

Henry was about to protest but he instead just turned away from his 'real mom' and continued to wait with his arms firmly crossed over his chest.

* * *

Mary Margaret smiled as she made her way down the stairs. She pushed through the double-doors with the intention of walking straight through the waiting room and to the exit.

However, her steps faltered when she noticed a blonde woman sat alone in the corner with her head propped up by her hand.

"Emma?" the brunette asked once she was in ear-shot.

The deputy sheriff looked up from her lap with a raised eyebrow at the unexpected arrival. However, she quickly got over her surprise and stood to meet the schoolteacher.

"What are you doing here?" the blonde asked.

"I was visiting David," she blushed with a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

Emma tilted her head, it didn't look as though the woman was trying to hide her feelings anymore.

"I thought that he's married?"

"Kathryn actually had the marriage dissolved because she thought he was never coming back," the brunette replied, looking around to make sure that no one was listening. As much as she had made peace with Kathryn, she was sure that the woman wouldn't want her to broadcast her business to the hospital.

"That doesn't mean that she can't stay with him," Emma frowned.

"Apparently, Regina talked to her about it. She helped her to realise that she doesn't love him anymore. She was actually asked out by some guy named Jim. Plus, she offered to be around to answer any questions that he might have."

Emma furrowed her brow at the explanation. It shouldn't have been that easy considering just how complicated the situation could have become.

Mary Margaret frowned at the faraway look on her roommate's thoughtful expression. She was obviously thinking about how things shouldn't be this easy but she had stopped verbally objecting by now. It never got her anywhere anyway.

"Why are you here anyway?" the schoolteacher asked.

Emma blew out a breath and walked back over so that she could fall down onto her seat and Mary Margaret sat down next to her.

"Regina," the blonde sighed.

Mary Margaret frowned at the news as she considered whether the mayor had ever so much as come down with a little sniffle.

"She ate an apple turnover and fell unconscious, I think it might have been an allergic reaction or something," Emma explained.

The schoolteacher was about to say something but she was interrupted by a younger brunette walking towards them.

"My mom isn't allergic to apples," Henry announced.

Emma just rolled her eyes and asked, "wasn't you getting food?"

"I need more money," he replied.

"Why?"

"So I can get a hot chocolate," he shot back as if it should have been obvious.

The blonde sighed and reached into her pocket to dig out some crumpled notes, "get me one too."

"Fine," he replied, before he walked away without another word.

Once he had made it through the door, Mary Margaret frowned and said, "he seems…different…"

"He's mad at me because I wouldn't kiss Regina and breaking the 'Sleeping Curse' that his mom is under," Emma sighed.

Mary Margaret raised her eyebrow. She knew that Henry always had a very active imagination, but this seemed like a strange coping mechanism for dealing with his mother's hospitalisation.

"Could it really hurt to try?" the brunette asked.

Emma's mouth fell open slightly and she prayed that she wasn't living with another person who believed in the 'curse'.

"It would hurt when it doesn't work," Emma replied.

The idea makes complete sense to Henry, so when it doesn't work, he'll be able to move on and start dealing with the fact that his mother is in hospital. He might even stop being so angry with you," Mary Margaret explained.

Emma thought about this for a moment. The blonde couldn't help but think that she wanted her first kiss with Regina to be when she was actually awake, but if it would help Henry to process this better than it might actually be worth it.

"Fine, you make a good point," the saviour sighed.

* * *

-Half-an-hour later-

Emma walked slowly behind Henry as they made their way towards Regina's room.

Dr Whale had already explained that he was still trying everything he could and that they could see her while he continued to run tests on everything that he could think of.

The blonde felt more than out of place as Henry pushed through the door, almost as if she didn't have the right to be here. It wasn't as though she had known Regina long, but she also couldn't have Henry visiting her on his own.

Emma's stomach dropped when the woman came into view. She looked almost peaceful despite the fact that she appeared to be hooked up to at least three machines, including an oxygen tube running through her nose.

"What the hell happened?" Emma breathed as Henry walked forward to fall into the plastic chair next to the bed.

"I told you what happened," Henry replied, though he didn't turn away from his mother as he placed his hand onto her arm.

Emma sighed, though she was still hanging back, "if I test your kiss theory, will you stop acting like…this?"

Henry's face lit up and he actually looked over his shoulder at her as he nodded vigorously.

The blonde bit the inside of her cheek as she walked over. Kissing an unconscious woman was still an incredibly creepy prospect no matter how many different ways she thought about it.

Henry jumped into the seat next to the one he had been sat in so that Emma could sit closer to Regina's head.

Emma looked over to Henry to make sure that this wasn't some elaborate prank, but he only nodded for her to continue.

She took a deep breath before she slowly leaned forward to place a very light kiss on her lips.

Emma leaned back, with her eyes still closed as she waited, not quite sure why she didn't want to look at the mayor.

Henry continued to smile for a couple of seconds, but it quickly fell away.

At the sound of the boy standing from his chair, Emma opened her eyes as Henry placed his hand onto his mother's, "please wake up, mom," he begged.

Emma leaned back in her seat in defeat, not quite sure why she was disappointed.

 **A/N Reviews would be much appreciated :)**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter seven

 _"What is he doing with my son?" Regina asked with clenched fists._

 _"He's Henry's father," Emma replied as she tried desperately to remain calm._

 _"And when were you planning to tell me this?"_

 _The blonde sighed and shook her head, "relax."_

 _The brunette just rolled her eyes and stood to walk away. The former queen didn't notice that the saviour staring longingly after her as she did so._

Emma opened her eyes and groaned, "it was just a dream," she mumbled and turned off her back so that she was facing the door of the guest bedroom.

When visiting had ended at the hospital, Emma had panicked since that meant that Henry would be her responsibility. She had briefly considered that she could leave him with someone and take the chance to leave the town.

However, the fact that she didn't know whether Regina would ever wake up or who Henry's legal next of kin was, made her stay. She knew that she maybe could live with herself if she knew that her son had a mother like Regina, but if he was placed into the foster system, she knew that there was no way that there wouldn't be a moment when she wouldn't be thinking about him.

It was for this reason that she had done as Mary Margaret had suggested and taken him back to the mayoral mansion. Being at home was certain to make him feel slightly better than sleeping in his schoolteacher's much smaller loft. However, that didn't mean that Emma felt any less awkward about sleeping in a comatose woman's home without her express permission, no matter how much the bed felt like sleeping on a cloud.

She was brought out of her thoughts by Henry padding into the room holding a piece of paper, which he held out to her.

Emma sighed and took it, "what is it?" she asked.

"Well, I was thinking that my kiss should have woken my mom up, so I checked the contract. Mr Gold added in another part that the saviour has to be the one who breaks any curse present in Storybrooke. Mom probably didn't think anything of it since she assumed that there was only one curse when she signed the contract," he explained, "which means that you need to believe so that you can break both curses."

Emma looked at the page blankly, not quite taking in the words as she blinked to try and rid herself of the exhaustion coursing through her body, despite the fact that she may have just had the best sleep of her life.

"She's not cursed, Henry," she finally replied and handed the contract back to him.

"Can you think of another way to explain the coma?" Henry replied defiantly.

"Do I look like a doctor?" she countered as she swung her legs around in an effort to actually get out of bed.

"I can't believe that I actually tried to find you, you're a horrible person!" Henry announced before he turned on his heels and began making his way towards the door in the hopes that the woman wouldn't see the tears that were threatening to fall down his face.

"Henry wait," Emma called and jumped up from the bed so that she could walk over to him. "I know that I'm acting horribly. I'm sorry about your mom, but please stop talking about curses?"

He huffed and swallowed hard, he didn't want to drop the subject by he couldn't completely scare Emma away when she was the only person capable of even having a chance to wake up his mother. He finally nodded, "can you take me to go and see her?"

Emma nodded slowly as she considered what she was supposed to do, "you can have breakfast at the hospital and then…I guess you have to go to school, right?"

A smile tugged at the corner of Henry's mouth and he said, "getting the hang of this, are we?"

"Go and get ready, kid," Emma replied as she pointed at the door.

Henry just shook his head and walked away to do what he was told.

* * *

Regina brought her eyebrows together as a sense of consciousness returned to her mind, which confused her since she was sure that she wasn't supposed to feel at all comfortable while under a sleeping curse. From the tales that she had heard, she was sure that she was supposed to be burning a fiery inferno right now.

However, when she opened her eyes, she panicked when she saw nothing but darkness stretching around her forever. It reminded her far too much of the optical illusions that her mother would use as punishments for her insubordination.

The brunette fell down so that she was sitting with her arms around her knees and she scrunched up her eyes shut as she took a couple of calming breaths. The fire would have been almost better.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and she instantly tensed up until a voice softly said, "Regina."

Said woman smiled at the familiar voice and she opened her eyes, "Emma," she said, but her smile fell into confusion when she opened her eyes to be met with a different person entirely. She blinked a couple of times, before she placed her head in her hands and muttered, "I'm going mad."

"The first time in this plane of existence is pretty intense, Gina, but don't mistake it for madness," Daniel chuckled as he moved to sit next to the woman.

"Plane of existence?" Regina asked with a frown as she resisted the urge to touch the stable boy to make sure that he was actually there.

"You could call it Limbo or Purgatory," Daniel replied as he offered her a small smile in the hopes that it would reassure her slightly, despite the fact that he knew how it felt to arrive here for the first time.

Regina took a moment to consider whether this was possible, but then again, she supposed when it came to curses pretty much anything was possible. She had managed to create a new town in a realm, so it was hardly impossible that a Sleeping Curse could send a person to Limbo where they could meet their dead fiancé.

Finally, she leaned her head against his shoulder and she mumbled, "you've been here for all of these years?"

Daniel raised a hand to lightly move a few strands of hair out of her face, "I can't move on until I know that you have gotten your happy ending."

"Then I suppose we'll both be here for the rest of eternity," Regina scoffed as she blinked back tears at his words. She knew that he loved her and she certainly knew that she loved him, but now she was no longer a teenager she wasn't as sure if she would have ended up with him if he had lived. Now that she had met Emma, she knew that there was a difference between True Love and first love, which only made her feel guiltier in this moment.

"I'm not so sure, Gina," he replied as he lightly placed his hand onto her hair to pull her a little closer. He may have come to terms with the fact that Regina was never meant to be with him forever, but he was still revelling in the fact that he could actually touch her after all of these decades. "You've obviously found your True Love in Emma Swan."

Regina looked down at her lap. She was certain that Emma was her True Love, but she was sure that it didn't necessarily have to go both ways. "I've based all of my theories upon a look we shared when we were both about to die, what if I'm wrong about everything?" she asked as she refused to look him in the eyes.

"Sometimes, one look can be all it takes when it comes to love, do you remember how we met?" Daniel asked after a moment of consideration.

"I smiled at you while my mother was berating you and you brought me a flower later to thank me for lifting your mood," Regina smiled fondly.

"From that moment, I knew that you were the best thing that would ever happen to me and from my observations, I'm almost certain that Emma feels the same way."

"Observations?" Regina asked as she tried not to think about just how short his life had actually been.

"From the moment that…it happened, I have been watching you," Daniel replied as he desperately tried to think of a way to make that sound not-creepy. It wasn't as though he was watching her for every moment of the day, every day, but he had spent a great deal of time seeing what she was doing with her time. "How else was I supposed to see when you got your happy ending?" he asked.

"You've been watching…everything?" she asked fearfully as shame began flooding through her system.

"I've seen Regina, the Evil Queen and Mayor Mills, if that is what you're asking," he replied and squeezed her arm to show his support.

"You must be so disappointed in me…I became exactly like my mother," she sighed and a tear actually fell down her cheek while a few potential scenes that he could have seen flashed through her mind.

"I'll admit, certain moments were difficult to watch, but the fact is that you became the person you needed to be so that you could get your happy ending. If you hadn't cast the curse, Henry certainly would not have been born, and if Snow hadn't been banished from the palace, she may have never met David, which would mean no Emma…"

"If I had done nothing, my father would still be alive," Regina countered. She may have accepted Henry's absolution, but she somehow didn't feel as though she could accept the same from Daniel. If he had worked on a different estate then may nothing evil that she had ever done would have happened.

"I would give my life a thousand times over if it would mean that you could be happy, my child," another voice joined.

Regina's head lifted from Daniel's shoulder and her mouth fell open at the sight.

"Daddy!" she all but shouted as she jumped to her feet and threw her arms around his shoulders. Henry Senior instantly enveloped her in a hug and rubbed calming circles on her back as she mumbled, "I'm so sorry."

He let out a laugh and pushed her back slightly so that he could rub a tear away from her face with the pad of his thumb, "I forgave you instantly."

"H-how?!" she choked out.

"A parent should do anything for their children, which is something that you clearly understand. I'm so proud of you, Regina," he smiled as he wiped away another.

Regina smiled at the words, but the smile began fading when a thought occurred to her, "what am I supposed to do now?"

Daniel stood to join the pair and said, "you need to wait for Emma to believe."

Regina sighed as she wondered just how long that could take.

* * *

"Regina ate a poisoned pastry?" August repeated.

Graham nodded in confirmation. Since he had arrived in town, August appeared to spend all of his time in the sheriff's station, which was something he could honestly understand. Since he had gotten his memories back, he found it strange to interact with the people he had known back in the Enchanted Forest. Their cursed identities just seemed so weird to him now and he didn't want to risk saying something that would just confuse them. It was for this reason that it was nice to talk to someone who wouldn't frown if he brought up magic.

"She went under a Sleeping Curse so that Henry wouldn't and Emma is the only one who can break the curse," the sheriff explained.

"Rather ironic," August mumbled.

Graham just rolled his eyes. He suddenly felt very protective about Regina since she had returned his heart. She was not the same woman who had taken it and he was sure that given more time, that they could actually become quite good friends.

"What was your plan for making Emma believe?" Graham asked in order to change the topic.

August frowned and just shrugged, "I didn't really think that far ahead."

"How could you not have a plan before coming to a cursed town?" the other man laughed, mostly out of disbelief.

"I was more focused on not turning back to wood," August defended, and when he received a quirked eyebrow in return, he added, "it can't be the strangest thing that you've ever heard."

Graham shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest, "it's definitely up there," he sighed before he added, "we need a plan if Regina is ever going to wake up."

"You know…if she dies then the curse would break," August muttered.

"Regina is different now, she doesn't deserve that and Henry definitely doesn't deserve to lose his mother when there is another way," he replied and August reluctantly nodded in agreement. If anything, he could agree that Henry didn't deserve to lose his parent since he knew exactly what it was like to be separated from the person who had raised you. But that also meant that he was more desperate for the curse to break quickly so that his father could remember him. The blank look on Gipetto's face when he had gone to 'introduce' himself to him earlier that day was more than he could handle.

The pair fell into silence for a few moments before the sheriff furrowed his brow when something occurred to him.

"That dirty little imp," he muttered.

"What?" August asked in surprise.

"Gold knew that Regina would eat the apple turnover if she thought that Henry was going to eat it. He knew that her death would break the curse quicker so he never actually intended for him to go under the curse."

"And what if Henry had eaten it at school?" August frowned.

"Then I'm sure that Regina would have done everything in her power to make sure Emma believes, either way he would have gotten what he wants."

"But doesn't a Sleeping Curse just make someone…sleep?"

"There's no magic here to keep the curse active, so she's essentially being poisoned. Mr Gold made a point of telling Henry how it works when he convinced him that it was a good idea," Graham sighed.

"Henry told you this?" August asked, "I would have thought that Regina would have told you in an 'evil monologue' before she sent you to collect Snow White's heart," he laughed.

"Why would she have told me how the Sleeping Curse works without magic?" Graham frowned.

"No idea, I was just trying to figure out who you were in the Enchanted Forest and, by the look on your face, you were definitely The Hunter."

"You could have just asked, Pinocchio," Graham laughed.

"I told you that I was turning to wood, it isn't as if you could have not known," August huffed which Graham just smirked at.

"Speaking of turning back to wood, I think that both you and Regina would benefit from some magic," the sheriff sighed.

"And how do you suppose that we get magic?" August countered.

"It's times like this that we could really use someone who knows the future."

* * *

Emma leaned against the doorframe and watched as Henry whispered to his comatose mother. She was sure that he was talking about the Sleeping Curse and making Emma believe, which only made the woman feel all the more awkward.

She knew that this was probably just the boy's coping mechanism but he just seemed to believe it so completely that Emma was afraid of who he would blame if his mother didn't wake up, especially since Whale had just informed them that he had tried everything standard. Apparently, he would need to broaden his scope to less common poisons in order to find one that would fit the mayor's symptoms. Emma was fairly certain that he had only said that as not to completely dash a ten-year-old's hope.

As if to prove her suspicion, she felt a light tap on her shoulder and she turned to see Dr Whale and she raised an eyebrow at him expectantly.

"May I speak with you in private, Miss Swan?"

Emma quickly looked over to Henry, who appeared to have completely forgotten that she was even there. She then turned back to the doctor and nodded for him to lead the way. The blonde followed him over to the opposite, vacant room.

Once they were both stood away from young ears, Emma looked at the man and waited for him to open his mouth to tell her what was so important.

"I know that you sensed that I wasn't telling the whole truth before," Whale finally said after a moment of deliberation.

"You lied?" Emma asked with a frown.

"Technically I didn't, there is always a chance that one of the antidotes will work…" he replied rather defensively.

"What chance?" Emma shot back.

Whale's jaw tightened and he replied, "it's difficult without knowing what the poison is. Some of the antidotes have certain risk associated with them and diagnosing a rare poison is not a quick process. She…might not have enough time…"

"How long?" the blonde asked as she felt frustration rise in her stomach.

"Based upon the rate that her symptoms are progressing, I would give her a week," he replied. "That's why I needed to speak with you, Miss Swan, are you Henry's legal next of kin?"

"Why would I be his legal next of kin?" Emma snapped back and the man's eyebrows shot up in surprise. The blonde's shoulders slumped after a moment as she offered him an expression of apology as she explained, "I met him less than three days ago…it would be someone in this town, right?"

"Regina doesn't have anyone in this town who she would trust with her son, it was just her and Henry before you arrived."

Emma fell back against the closest wall and brought her hands up to her face in an effort to stop tears from falling. She was sure that she shouldn't be this upset about a woman she had only met less than a week. However, she just knew that her life would be infinitely worse if she died.

"What am I going to do?" she asked once she was sure that this stranger wouldn't see her cry.

"I'm afraid that I don't know much about legal guardianship, if you speak to Mr Gold he will be more than capable of answering all of your questions."

Emma nodded and sighed, "thank you," before she thought of something else to ask, "did you test the apple turnover?"

"As far as we can tell, it's just a normal pastry," he replied sadly.

Emma sighed again, but offered him a tight smile by way of thanking him before she left the room to return to her son.

"Where'd you go?" the boy asked whilst still holding his mother's hand.

"Bathroom," she lied.

* * *

Mary Margaret smiled as she placed books onto the tables of her classroom. She couldn't remember ever being this happy and she just knew that it was because of all of the time that she had been spending with David. At the moment, they were just becoming fast friends, but she knew that if they were given enough time, with nothing in the way, she just knew that they could become something more.

Her contented humming stopped at the sound of a knock at the door. The teacher frowned since she was certain that her lunch time had never once been interrupted, but as always when she tried to think back to the past, she got this fuzzy feeling in her mind and she just forgot about the question completely.

"Come in," she called.

The door opened slowly and Emma timidly looked around the room to make sure that she wasn't interrupting anything. After Henry had gone to school, she had spent a couple of hours dreading what she was going to need to tell him and she certainly wasn't ready for a visit to Mr Gold just yet. She was sure that she wouldn't be able to deal with being told who Henry's legal guardian would be in the event that Whale's predictions came true. It was for this reason that she had decided to go and talk to her roommate, she didn't know what it was about the woman, but she made her feel better.

Mary Margaret watched the woman walk stiffly into the room as she closed the door behind her.

"Emma?" she asked.

The blonde brought her bottom lip into her mouth, before she said in a slightly broken voice, "how do you tell a ten-year-old that his mom is going to die in a week."

The teacher's eyebrows shot up and she said, "I thought it was an allergic reaction…"

"Whale diagnosed it as poisoning but he has no idea what the poison actually is so he can't give her the right antidote," Emma replied with her eyes cast down to the ground.

Mary Margaret inspected the pure despair radiating from the woman and she couldn't resist anymore as she crossed the room to envelope her in a tight hug. Much to her surprise, the blonde returned the action with no hesitation.

When they finally parted, Emma sub-consciously took a couple of steps backwards when her mind caught up with what had just happened.

"What am I going to do?" she asked as she wiped a tear away from her cheek.

"You just have to tell him the truth, this is not something you should lie about, Emma," the brunette replied after a moment of consideration.

The deputy brought her arms across her chest as if she were protecting herself, "he's going to hate me."

"He might think that by bringing you to this town that he caused this, but he'll soon realise that isn't true," the other woman assured.

"What if this wouldn't have happened if he hadn't brought me here?" Emma asked in almost a whisper. It was something that she had been thinking about since she had got the news from the Doctor Whale and she was honestly afraid that it could actually be true.

"Did you poison Regina?" Mary Margaret asked.

"Of course I didn't," the other woman replied indignantly.

"Then it isn't your fault," she said in a firm tone, before she added, "henry can be excused from class though; you should tell him as soon as possible."

"You can do that?" Emma frowned while her throat constricted at the thought of having that conversation, though she knew that Mary Margaret was right: this was not something that she should put off.

"How heartless do you think the principle is?" Mary Margaret laughed.

"Fair point."

The blonde was stopped from saying anything further by the sound of the bell ringing out and then children promptly filed into the room, a lot of them giving her curious looks.

Henry was the exception as he walked straight over to the woman and asked, "what are you doing here?"

Emma winced at the harshness of his words and Mary Margaret frowned at the usually polite boy. However, she didn't say anything since he had a pretty good excuse for acting strangely, even if she did feel sorry for her roommate.

"Miss Blanchard excused you from class, I need to tell you something, kid," the blonde explained.

Henry looked between the two adults and swallowed hard. He knew it must have been something bad considering the expressions that they were both wearing.

"My mom would kill me if I missed school," he argued.

Emma smiled slightly at the mention of Regina, though it was a distinctly sad smile, which only made the boy even more anxious.

His birth mother placed a hand on his shoulder and said, "I'm sure that she would understand just this once."

Henry shrugged her hand off his shoulder and mumbled, "whatever," as he walked off to grab his things.

Mary Margaret offered her a supportive smile before she turned to begin her class.

* * *

Henry watched as Emma paced in front of the mayoral mansion's living room couch and he blew out a breath of frustration.

The car ride here had been completely silent with the exception of Emma occasionally tapping her fingers against the steering wheel and now that they were inside the house she wasn't exactly making any real attempt to speak.

"What do you need to tell me?" he finally asked when he decided that he couldn't take this anymore.

The blonde opened her mouth but closed it when something occurred to her and she began walking towards the kitchen.

Henry rolled his eyes and called, "what are you doing?"

Emma stopped in her tracks and turned around with a sigh, "you need cocoa."

"You're trying too hard," he replied and she blew out a breath as she walked back over to the couch.

"I just don't want this to be too traumatic," she sighed and sat down on the coffee table.

Henry felt panic raising in his stomach, "just tell me," he demanded.

Emma swallowed hard and replied, "Whale didn't tell you everything."

"So he lied?" Henry frowned.

"There was something that he didn't feel that he could tell you…" Emma replied as she resisted the urge to close her eyes in frustration at herself. She was pretty sure that she was messing this up.

"What didn't he tell me?" Henry pressed.

"He said that unless they figure out what the poison is soon your mom…she'll…err…"

"She'll what?" Henry asked, suddenly in a very small voice.

"He said that at this rate, she won'…survive the week…" she said as she desperately tried to gauge his reaction, though she had no idea how he was supposed to react under these circumstances.

"That's not how a Sleeping Curse works," Henry replied though Emma wasn't quite sure what the blank expression on his face meant.

"Henry…" Emma said slowly as she leaned forward to place a hand onto his knee, but he quickly jumped up so that she couldn't.

"No!" he shouted, "you're not my mom!"

Emma recoiled as she felt her breath taken away from her, but she quickly recovered and said, "you're right, I'm not your mom. Is there someone else you would rather talk to about this?"

"Graham," Henry said instantly.

The blonde frowned and asked, "the sheriff?"

"He's…kind of the closest thing I have to a dad…" Henry explained.

Emma just nodded and said, "Okay, I'll take you to see Graham."

"Without you?"

"Yes, without me," she sighed.

 **A/N Reviews would be much appreciated, they definitely help with faster updates since they help with motivation :)**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N Sorry for the wait, I kind of forgot that I had a chapter finished that I just needed to type up. There may be a slight wait for the next chapter since I'm working on reading about six Shakespeare plays for uni but I will try and get to work on the next chapter as soon as possible :D**

Chapter eight

"Just text me when you want to go to see your mom," Emma said with a tight smile.

Henry just nodded and began walking across the station towards the sheriff. Graham looked away from August, who had been deep in conversation when they had arrived and offered Emma a reassuring smile.

The blonde just nodded at him and gave him the same smile she had given to Henry before she just awkwardly began walking towards the exit.

Once Graham was sure that the woman was out of ear-shot, he pulled out a spare desk chair and motioned for Henry to sit down.

When the boy did, he asked, "what's up, Hen?"

Henry sat quietly for a moment as he considered his words and finally asked, "how does a Sleeping Curse work?"

Graham frowned at the question and exchanged a look with August before he replied, "it's pretty much in the name..."

"Mr Gold told me that he modified the curse so that it wouldn't hurt me, but Dr Whale said that my mom won't survive the week…he's wrong, right?" Henry asked desperately with a hint of hope in his voice. He knew that he had told Graham everything that Gold had told him before, but he hoped that he had been wrong. Maybe the sheriff had found out more information since then?

"I still can't believe that the Evil Queen has a son," August scoffed.

"Don't call her that," Henry shouted and the former puppet held up his hands in surrender and said:

"I'm sorry, I should have said 'Regina'."

Henry nodded and stifled a sniffle as he asked, "who are you?"

"Aug…Pinocchio," he replied with a smile, hoping that the information might help the boy to forgive him. He couldn't help but feel like a complete ass for saying that in front of a grief-stricken son.

"But…you're an adult," Henry replied with a tilt of his head.

The older man shrugged, "I came through the wardrobe with Emma, so I grew up…"

"That reminds me, weren't you supposed to protect her?" Graham asked with an accusatory look.

"I…" he began, but nothing came out. This didn't really feel like the time to start going over the past.

Thankfully, Henry seemed to agree with this sentiment as he interrupted, "that's not important right now, you didn't answer my question."

Graham sighed and looked back over to the boy, this was not something that he wanted to confirm right now. The boy obviously already knew the answer to his question, he was just hoping that he had been wrong when he had explained everything to him.

"Without magic to sustain the curse…she is really being poisoned," he said carefully.

Henry looked shocked for a moment before he started vehemently shaking his head, "no, she can't die," he exclaimed as a few stray tears began dripping down his face.

Graham launched out of his seat and brought the boy into a hug, "shh…" he whispered as he began to stroke his hair lightly, "we won't let that happen."

Henry sniffed and pulled back so that he could look up at the man's face, "we?"

"You, me and August," the sheriff replied as he jammed his thumb in the man's direction.

"It doesn't seem like he wants to help," Henry frowned and ran his sleeve across his face in an effort to dry it.

August shifted in his seat and replied, "of course I will help the…queen does seem like a different person."

"She is," Henry sighed as she looked down and Graham finally released him from what had become a half-hug. The boy thought for a moment before he said, "so we need magic to stop mom from…being poisoned?"

Graham nodded, "that's about as far as we got, but we don't exactly know that much about magic…"

Henry bit his lip in concentration and said, "mom said there's a dragon under the library…that means there's magic, right?"

"There's a dragon…in Storybrooke?" Graham asked slowly.

Henry nodded vigorously with excitement spreading across his features and Graham sighed deeply, he really wished that it could be anything but a dragon.

* * *

Emma pushed through the door with a heavy sigh as the bell over the door rang out. She may have had the best sleep of her life the night before, but she somehow felt drained and she was sure that this conversation wasn't going to help, even if she did want to meet the infamous Mr Gold.

The man behind the counter smiled at her as she approached him, "deputy Swan," he greeted and instantly received narrowed her eyes in return, "it's a small town and news travels fast."

Emma just nodded, though she couldn't get past the feeling that there was something suspicious about this man.

"I was told that you were the closest thing that this town has to a lawyer," Emma said and awkwardly shifted from foot to foot.

"You have a question about the mayor, I assume?" Gold smirked.

The blonde swallowed hard and nodded she supposed that it did make sense. In a town like Storybrooke, it was reasonable that people would know that their mayor was in hospital, though she wasn't sure that people should look as gleeful about this situation as this man did.

"I…need to make sure that Henry won't go to a foster home," Emma said slowly. She had been rehearsing this on her way back from the station, but she didn't feel the slightest bit prepared for this.

"Quite crass, Miss Swan," Mr Gold replied and smirked as the woman swallowed hard and looked down.

Emma knew she probably could have waited for this, but the idea of sitting around while Henry could lose his mother at any moment made her nauseous.

"I don't want the system to make things worse for him, he deserves a permanent home," Emma replied.

"The contract that you both signed stipulates that in the event of Regina's death, all parental rights would return to Henry's birth mother."

Emma's eyes widened and she shook her head, "I didn't see that in the contract."

"I suppose that an eighteen-year-old didn't read the fine print," he replied and Emma got the distinct urge to slap the insufferable smirk from his face.

Emma, instead, just rolled her eyes and said, "okay them, why would Regina agree to that?"

"This may surprise you, Miss Swan, but our dear mayor doesn't have anyone she would be willing to give guardianship to."

Emma bit the inside of her cheek when a thought occurred to her. She couldn't help but think that Regina would never have believed that she would die in her own cursed town. Her eyes widened slightly when she realised that her mind had just seriously considered that as a plausible explanation.

She just decided to push it aside, though, "what would happen if I can't look after him?"

"Then he would become a ward of the state and enter the foster system," he replied.

Emma's jaw clenched at the thought and she shook her head adamantly, "how do you know so much about this?"

"I arranged the adoption."

"You arranged for the Evil Queen to adopt the saviour's son?" Emma asked without thinking.

Rumple's eyebrows shot up and he smirked, "it seems that young Henry is finally getting to you."

Emma blew out a breath and ran her hand across her face before she replied, "I think that he really is."

S

Regina's head fell into her hands and she shook it as if it would erase everything that she had just seen.

Finally, she brought her head up to see Daniel smirking at her in amusement.

"She's screwing this up," the brunette defended. Even if she felt a slight flutter of happiness at hearing Henry telling Emma that she wasn't his mom, she had to remind herself that ultimately what she wanted anymore.

Daniel just laughed and shook his head. He had shouted similar things over the years when he had seen the Evil Queen do things to live up to her title, but he also had to remind himself that there was nothing that he could do about anything that he was seeing, no matter how much he wanted to.

"It's unfair to expect a woman who grew up in a land without magic to believe that the adoptive mother of the son she just met is under a Sleeping Curse. You've got to give her some slack, Gina."

Regina sighed and replied, "well when you say it like that…"

Daniel laughed again and brought his arm across the woman's shoulder, "you just have to be patient, the saviour will come through eventually."

"For once, it would be nice if the heroic moment didn't have to be at the last possible moment," Regina frowned, "I just feel like I need to do something."

"You have no idea how many times I have wanted to intervene over the years, but there's nothing that you can do," he said softly.

Regina swallowed and mumbled, "I'm sorry."

Daniel tilted his head and asked, "what are you sorry for?"

"If you had never met me you would be alive and happy," Regina sighed and looked down at the dark ground, "and after all of these years, you're pushing for me to find my happy ending with another."

The man released her shoulder so that he was fully facing her and used a finger under her chin to bring her face up.

When her eyes remained down, he said, "look at me, Regina," after a moment, she did as he asked and he continued, "if I was alive, I most certainly would not be happy if I had never known you, seeing you happy for even a moment is my happy ending."

"I was truly happy with Henry…" Regina offered after a moment of thought. She decided that there was no reason to bring up the thought that she didn't deserve any of that. He would probably just argue that she did and it would get them nowhere.

"I don't doubt it, Regina, but the fact is that he is just a child. He is no doubt part of your happy ending, but he isn't all that you need. Over the years, it became clear that you were happy but that there was always something missing."

"Yes, you," Regina sighed.

Daniel shook his head, "I may have been your first love but I don't believe that we were ever meant to last forever."

"How can you be so accepting of this?" Regina sighed, mostly because she didn't want to admit that he was right. When she imagined a future with Daniel, she found that she couldn't imagine growing old with him.

"For the first few years, I desperately wished for Frankenstein's experiments to work, but I saw how much it was destroying you and I began wishing for you to move on," he explained, sounding as though he had practised these words many times over.

"I never did move on," Regina replied with a sniff.

"Well…I would be a little insulted if you moved on from me completely," Daniel smirked only to receive a playful punch to his arm by way of response, "I know that it may not feel as though you have moved on, but you can love those you have lost whilst loving the living. One does not somehow negate the other."

Regina swallowed hard and then let out a small chuckle, "you sound like you have been thinking about this."

"Forty years leaves a lot of time for thinking, Gina, and if I can wait that long, then you can certainly wait a week."

Regina stood silent for a moment before she said, "perhaps…it would be better for everyone if I just don't wake up."

"Don't day that…" Daniel frowned.

"My death would break the curse. Rumple can go and get Neal and then he, Emma and Henry could be the real family that Henry has always wanted."

"Or you could wake up, you and Emma would have the chance to completely fall in love. Rumple would get Neal and then Henry will have three parents who love him," Daniel retorted, when Regina didn't make any attempt to reply, he added, "Henry doesn't want you to die and it isn't something that he could just get over for the sake of his 'real family'. Do you honestly believe that he could replace the mother of ten years with his so-called father?"

"Neal isn't that bad," Regina sighed before she realised that she had actually said that aloud, "I never said that…"

Daniel laughed and brought her into his arms, "your secret is safe with me, Gina."

* * *

Gold brought up a small diamond to his face and frowned at it.

As much as he prided himself on being patient, he found that just waiting for the curse to break was agonising, especially when he knew that it was so close to happening. Going about his usual day just felt wrong when he knew what was about to happen, appraising a diamond didn't feel particularly important in that moment when all he could think about was how long it would take to get to his son.

Thankfully, his mind was brought away from the mind-numbing task when the bell rang out to announce the arrival of an unexpected trio.

Gold raised an eyebrow as Graham and Henry walked in, followed by the man whose name he knew was August from his time peeking into the future.

"How can I help you?"

Graham placed his hand on the counter and shot back, "you know exactly how you can help us." When the man just shook his head, the former hunter added, "we need magic in Storybrooke."

Gold just laughed in response.

Henry clenched his small fist and seethed as he asked, "Why are you laughing?"

"If you wait a week, the curse will break by itself," Rumple replied simply, "there's no need for any further planning on your parts."

Henry's face contorted in anger and August came up behind him to place a reassuring hand on the back of his shoulder, "none of us want that," the former puppet said firmly.

"Had quite the change of heart, haven't we, Henry?" Gold smirked.

The boy furrowed his brow and looked over to Graham who just shrugged.

"I never wanted my mom to die," Henry said with narrowed eyes.

"From your perspective, perhaps, but your mother has lived through quite a different past. There were plenty of moments when she believed that you couldn't care less whether she lived or died," Mr Gold replied.

The boy just shook his head vigorously, "none of that actually happened."

Gold inspected the desperation on his grandson's face and wondered whether he was doing the right thing. However, he quickly decided that Neal deserved to have his son, which would be made all the more simple if said son only had one mother.

"It did happen to her," he replied as he reached below the counter to pick up a random trinket, "how about a demonstration?"

Henry narrowed his eyes at the man wand was about to say that wouldn't be necessary, but the Dark One had already crushed what Henry could only assume once held some magical properties. The moment he opened his palm, a thin dust travelled through the air and began to embed itself into the small looking glass propped up on the counter.

The trio stared in fascination as an image began to bloom out of the particles until they formed a complete picture.

Henry frowned at the image of what looked like an older version of himself and Regina standing outside of Granny's diner. The first thing that his eyes were drawn to was the distraught expression on his mother's face and he felt guilt spring up in his stomach for something that he hadn't technically done.

 _"_ _I found my real mom and dad, I don't need you anymore. Just leave me alone!" Henry shouted._

 _Regina swallowed hard and just nodded, "okay," she replied just above a whisper. Before she simply just turned on her heels and began walking away from the diner._

 _In the scene on the mirror, a bell rang out behind Henry and he turned to see his blonde mother step out of Granny's._

 _Emma frowned at her son's clenched fists and asked, "are you okay, Henry?"_

 _The boy turned to look at her and launched forward to hug her, "I'm okay, mom," he said against her leather jacket._

The image disappeared from the glass but Henry continued to stare at it blankly while Graham and August exchanged worried looks.

"Why would I say those things to her?" Henry finally asked after a couple of moments of silence passed.

"The context isn't important," Rumple replied, "the point is that this proves that you can move on if she dies."

"Just because I was too stubborn in another timeline to give my mom a second chance, that doesn't mean that I want her to die," Henry argued.

Gold furrowed his brow at the determination in her voice, it was certainly a stark contrast to the scene that he had just seen him in.

"The Evil Queen has had far more than just two chances," Rumple shot back.

"We're talking about Regina here, not the Evil Queen," Graham interjected when he noticed Henry's face beginning to show signs of distress, "now you need to give us the answers that we need."

"And why would I do that?" the older man sneered.

"You'll eventually run out of trinkets for your tricks," August supplied, "if the curse breaks and magic returns to Storybrooke, then you'll have your unlimited source of power again."

"If I help you bring magic to Storybrooke and Miss Swan fails to break the curse, I will be stuck here with a sleeping mayor for the rest of eternity."

"It's Emma's destiny, she has to break the curse," Henry retorted.

"Destiny may be inevitable but it likes to take its sweet time," Mr Gold replied, "I may be a patient man, but even an immortal has his limits. I need to find my son so that he can meet you, Henry…"

"Why would he need to meet me?" Henry frowned.

"Because…my son is your father," Rumple replied with a triumphant smile.

Graham and August shared a cautious look. Rumpelstiltskin may have been a deceitful bastard but he didn't tend to straight-up lie, they silently agreed that he was most likely telling the truth and the simultaneously looked over to Henry for his reaction.

For a moment, the boy's face looked completely blank as his mind processed this. Since he was old enough to know that children were 'supposed' to have a mother and a father, he had imagined what his dad would be like. He often imagined a superhero who couldn't stay with him in order to protect his secret identity but since he found out that he was adopted, that idea began to change. He imagined a firefighter or policeman who didn't know that he had a son. In his original plan, he was going to help Emma break the curse and then he would demand that she take him to meet his father.

However, since Regina had started telling him the truth, he found that he no longer thought about the 'real family' that he was going to have after the curse broke. He thought more about what the possibility of Emma and Regina being a couple would mean, the thought of having a father didn't really factor into his imaginings of the future anymore.

This meant that when he was forced to hear about the man who he knew literally nothing about, he still found that his priorities did no shift away from his comatose mother who he wanted to desperately wake up as soon as possible.

"So…you're my grandfather?" Henry finally asked.

Gold nodded, though he suddenly looked cautious when he detected a strange change in the tone of Henry's voice.

"That means that you have to help me," the boy replied as he grew in confidence.

"I am helping you," Gold defended, "if this works, then you will have both of your parents."

"Emma and…your son are not my parents!" Henry exploded and continued before Gold could open his mouth to retort, "Emma doesn't know what I'm allergic to or scared of, she doesn't know that my favourite superhero is Spiderman or how to make me feel better when I'm sick. And I bet that your son doesn't even know that I exist!"

Gold stood completely dumbstruck for a moment. His whole plan had been designed to give his son an uncomplicated family for his son, but he now saw that simply killing the Evil Queen was not the answer. This plan could have maybe worked in the alternate timeline, but in this one, Henry clearly still loved his mother. This was something that he could certainly understand, he knew too well what it was like to be abandoned by his biological parents and then learn to love those who actually raised him unconditionally.

The man wiped a hand across his face and whispered, "how could I be so foolish?"

Henry noticed the remorse spreading across the man's features and he smiled broadly in hope, "so you'll help?" he asked as he tried not to jump up and down on the balls of his feet.

"I don't see that there's anything else I could do," Gold sighed, "but I'm afraid that returning magic to Storybrooke is something that only the saviour can do."

"Why?" Graham frowned.

"Before the curse was cast, I asked Emma's father to place a source of True Love he and Snow White shared inside a very powerful creature. As far as I know, Maleficent and Regina had quite the feud going on at the time, so her curse was to remain in her dragon form with no magic to turn her back."

"The dragon under the library is Maleficent," Henry said slowly as Graham swallowed hard at the thought and August just looked somewhat confused. He hadn't expected any of this when he had set off to find Emma Swan.

"Calm down, Sheriff," Gold chuckled when he saw how nervous the man suddenly looked, "only the source of the True Love or a product of it will be able to defeat Maleficent and collect the magic. I hardly think that Mary Margaret or David Nolan should be sent in to the dragon's den, which only leaves one option to save the queen."

Henry scowled at the use of the title and Graham rolled his eyes at the man, "that means that we're back to trying to get Emma to believe. What would be the point of even sending her to fight Maleficent?"

This time, it was Rumple's turn to roll his eyes as he replied, "True Love is a form of Magic, hunter. As long as Miss Swan does in fact love Regina as much as you think she does, she would still require a source of power for the kiss to have any effect."

"So how do we get her to believe enough to remember?" Henry asked as the two men behind him just sighed.

"The process of Emma remembering as already begun, but she needs to reach the point where she accepts that she is remembering and not simply going mad."

"Will that take less than a week?" August asked.

"The saviour is quite stubborn, it could take years…"

"You've seen the future, what makes her believe?" Henry asked as he tried not to think about a future in which his birth mother remembered too late.

Gold tilted his head in thought. He had honestly spent more time trying to find ways to destroy Regina rather than considering how he could save her.

"She saw you eat the apple turnover, then she picked up the storybook…"

Henry's eyes widened in realisation and he practically shouted, "she hasn't read the storybook!"

Before anyone could say anything else, the boy began running towards the door.

Graham and August each shot Gold a look that was somewhere between mirth and appreciation before they ran to catch up with Henry on Main Street.

Rumple just rolled his eyes and turned on his heels in search of the word one of them would surely be returning for soon enough.

 **Reviews are a great motivator :)**


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